A Fool in a Turtle's Back
by grandy12
Summary: A misterious force has moved Nyx from Earth to the Disc, and now the flat world has one year before the Fall comes. Minato is awoken from his slumber and given an option; his old life back, or preventing the descent of death once again. Rated T because there might eventually have some sexual imagery (nothing that you wouldn't see in a Persona game.)
1. Chapter 1

If they felt emotions, they would say that they hated Death. Not in the same way a living being hated dying; they were not afraid of the unknown that followed life, for they understood neither the concept of being afraid, nor the concept of being alive.

They understood Order with a capital 'o' which was heaps above mere ordinary order. They understood gravity, and mass, and void, and if they had emotions, they would admit to liking these things; they were constant. A void was a void, and if you left it alone for a million years, it would continue being a void.

It was Organized.

Life wasn't. Life was messy, uncontrollable, and unpredictable. The only thing worse than life were emotions, because no matter how much they studied and observed, emotions made no sense, and they hated not being able to understand what it means to hate.

And they hated Death, because Death was part of life, and Death was created by emotions. A mere lack of life, a last breath and then becoming unmoving, these things were not Death. Death is what you got when a bunch of smelly apes got out of their trees, started howling to each other until they had a language, saw a skull in the ground and began wondering; what happens when the darkness behind my eyes has no eyes anymore to which hide behind? What is it to disappear, and to not be? How do we call it when we do not move anymore?

And that was Death; more than a simple lack of life, it was the unknown, the unrelenting, something to be feared or a gateway to end the suffering. Death was created by life, because without living beings to understand and emotions to give them imagination, there would be no need for the idea of Death.

Yes, they hated Death. But they kneweven Death would disappear one day, once the last breathing thing in the universe was no more, and Death reigned absolute, he would fade along with the last life to which oppose.

They hated Death, but they could use his nature against him. Even against his will. Even if it were another Death entirely.

Minato felt glad that his body could become the seal which would save the life of his world. And that is when he realized something was wrong, because he was _glad_. He shouldn't be able to feel, nor think, now that he thought about it. Or feel what he realized was a rather comfortable chair he was sitting on. He could not yet open his eyes out of fatigue; he felt as if he ran for a whole lifetime nonstop. But despite that he could still think, and dread started to wash over him. If he was now sitting in a chair, what happened to the seal? Had Nyx…?

"Ah… I see you have awoken."

The voice was familiar, and despite feeling groggy, he mustered all the strength he had to open one eye.

"Welcome back… to the Velvet Room." Said the long nosed man in front of him, holding the grin he always held, as if he knew much more than you ever would. Igor. Besides him, he recognized a slim woman holding a brown tome. Elizabeth. She gave him a small smile and a nod.

Despite himself, and slightly ashamed that the fear for his world was momentarily replaced by idle curiosity, Minato noticed is that the Velvet Room had changed; they were no longer in what appeared to be a giant lift, but rather a long corridor, with bookshelves on both his sides instead of walls. The bookshelves seemed to go on forever, both horizontally and vertically, and were filled to the brim with books. All the books had pristine blue covers, and aside what he recognized as being the Persona Compendium which Elisabeth held, none of them seemed to have been read even once. There were piles of blue books here and there scattered on the ground as well.

Only, at the same time, he noticed despite the bookshelves and the library theme, he was also on a very long street. The ground was made up of uneven cobblestones (which were also slightly blue), and all light came from Victorian styled lampposts which were scattered at random intervals.

Both the man and the Fool were sitting on opposite the ends of a long study table with blue chairs. Elizabeth was standing, however. He glanced up. There was no ceiling, and a giant light blue moon greeted him in the space between the gigantic bookshelves. It was nearly full.

After taking all of the room in, the teen just looked back at Igor. With all the strength he could gather, and his voice coming out a little hoarse, he said all he was feeling succinctly;

"Put me back."

The words were almost monotone, as were most things the teen ever said, but there was an edge to it.

The man closed his eyes and hid his smile behind the two hands he had intertwined in front of him, resting his shoulders in the table.

"You need not worry. Your presence here does not endanger that what you fought for."

Minato was still far too weak to properly protest, but did all he could;

"…Nyx…"

"…is not threatening your world anymore." The impish man answered, closing his eyes.

A strange feeling washed over the teen. Was it relief? Hope? Could he go back to his old life? See his old friends? …see Yukari…?

How much time had it passed since he became the seal? Would they even recognize him now?

But then again, Nyx was far too much powerful a being to be simply stopped permanently. And Igor was, for once, not smiling. Something was wrong.

"…how?"

Igor said nothing. Of course he wouldn't. The teen rolled his eyes annoyed, but then Elizabeth started to speak.

"Nyx has been moved."

Minato just blinked twice.

"…by who?"

Igor kept silent. Elizabeth looked at him, still smiling, despite her next words.

"That, we do not know."

"…where?" By now, the teen's strength had already returned almost fully, but he was never a man of many words. Especially not with Igor or Elizabeth; despite befriending the girl ('Was she a girl? Obviously feminine, but human, I mean…?') last year, he always felt short answers and questions were the best way to talk with them. Either they answered cryptically anyways, like Igor always did, or they just had a long one-sided conversation and didn't really bother to think about your explanations past face value, like Elizabeth did. He especially liked answering Elizabeth's questions about the world with short lies just to see the confusion on the girl's eyes.

Elizabeth smiled more broadly and, bringing one arm to her right side at shoulder height, she gestured to his left.

"Here."

A door appeared out of thin air on her right side (his left). It was blue. Of course it was.

"Where is that?"

"That is there." She pointed to the door. Yup, cryptic. He didn't know why he had bothered.

"...what will happen to those behind that door?"

Igor chuckled.

"It is not our place to say what the future holds."

Minato knew what he meant. Unlimited potential, nothing was written in stone. At least not for a Fool.

"You wish me to go stop the Fall again." It wasn't a question.

Igor rested his nose on his hands again and said nothing. Elizabeth took over. She held her right hand again, this time to her left (Minato's right). Another blue door appeared, identical to the one on his left.

"Behind this door lies Gekkoukan High."

Minato's usually stoic face immediately flew towards it.

"It leads to barely a week after Nyx was sealed."

Barely a week… his whole life back, all he needed to do was walk through that door. He could meet everyone again. But then…

"What will happen to those behind…?" he looked to the left door.

Igor had his eyes closed again.

"I repeat; that which the future holds, it is not our place to say." Igor opened one eye and did a lazy wave with his right hand. A piece of paper appeared out of thin air and floated up to Minato. The teen recognized it.

_'I chooseth this fate of my own free will._

_-Arisato Minato'_

He knew what it meant. He got up and walked to where Elizabeth stood, between the two doors. Igor did not bother to turn around and look at him.

Minato took another look at the door to his right. All his life, all his friends, all his memories… and Yukari…

It was an easy choice.

He put his headphones on, and walked through the door to his left.


	2. Chapter 2

He honestly did not know what to expect beyond the door, but an endless desert probably wasn't in the top 10 possibilities. He stared at the distance and spun around. The door to the Velvet Room had disappeared. Of course it had.

This place reminded him of Tartarus; the colors were wrong (the sand was a pure grey) and there was no wind. The skies had no clouds, and there was no moon, sun, or stars. His headphone had died the moment he stepped in.

HELLO

Minato quickly spun around. Oh, well, at least finding him was the easy part.

"Nyx."

SOME CALL ME THAT, YES

No, something was wrong… in front of Minato there was a tall skeleton with floating midnight black robes and a scythe. The eyes were two blue stars, unbelievably distant despite the fact there could not be this much distance inside its skull. It did remind him of Nyx, despite being completely different of Nyx in every aspect. Starting by the fact it had said "hello".

The skeleton put a bony hand inside his robes and rummaged for a while. Then it frowned, and Minato was impressed at how expressive that was because there was no flesh or skin to which frown. He then started patting himself up and down in the universal gesture of "I have lost my keys and do not know what to do".

THIS IS… EMBARRASSING

"What is?" Minato had his hands on his pockets and was just staring the creature with a blank face. He had seen too much to let a talking skeleton phase him.

I CAN'T SEEM TO BE ABLE TO FIND YOUR HOURGLASS

"Oh."

YES. OH. THIS HAS NEVER HAPPENED BEFORE, YOU KNOW?

"…are you Death, then?"

YES

"I see." He blinked. "Does the expression 'the Fall' mean anything to you?"

IT IS THE SEASON THAT COMES AFTER THE SUMMER

"That too. What about the name Ryoji Mochizuki?"

Death stared at him for a few seconds. He knew what was and what will be; he could remember the future as well as the past, and his memory was perfect.

THERE NEVER WAS, NOR THERE EVER WILL BE, ANYONE BORN UNDER THAT NAME

Minato raised an eyebrow. This wasn't Nyx. This much was obvious to see. He had a vague understanding that the embodiments of death could take many forms; Pharos, Ryoji, Nyx, Tartarus' Reaper. Even Minato's own Thanatos. Even if this skull was Death, it didn't mean it was the same being Minato intended to stop.

THOUGH I NOW SUSPECT WHY I CANNOT FIND YOUR HOURGLASS. YOU ARE NOT SUPPOSED TO BE HERE.

His eyes shined. Not menacingly, weirdly enough, he seemed curious, perhaps even a little excited.

I'LL NEED YOUR NAME

"…why?"

TO MAKE AN HOURGLASS FOR YOU.

There was some silence.

LOOK, I NEED TO BE READY FOR WHEN DIE OUT HERE, OKAY? YOU WOULD NOT BELIEVE THE PAPERWORK I WOULD HAVE TO FILE OTHERWISE. METAPHORICALLY SPEAKING. THERE IS NO PAPERWORK. THERE IS NOBODY TO READ.

When you die, Minato realized. Not if you die. Then again he thought this Death was not used with people getting away from him.

"Minato Arisato."

Death raised a bony hand to eye level, and suddenly he was holding one hourglass. No fancy lights or anything like that; simply one moment there was no hourglass, the next one there was one.

OH, COME ON

He sounded annoyed.

HOW DO YOU EXPLAIN THIS?

He showed Minato his hourglass. There was purpleish sand inside, only instead of falling down it was spinning all over the place, sometimes going up.

Minato shrugged. He figured out it had something to do with his unlimited potential; the hourglass couldn't predict when he was going to die anymore than Igor could. Death sighed.

FINE, IT'S NOT ANY WORSE THAN RINCEWIND.

He took another hourglass from his pocket, and this one has sand zigzagging through a series of glass tubes which kept circling back to the top after the sand reached the bottom.

WHERE DID YOU COME FROM?

"Earth."

OMNIAN?

"What?"

FROM EARTH WE CAME, BACK TO EARTH WE GO, THAT SORT OF THING?

"No, I came from a place called Earth."

GOOD NAME. CONCISE

There was some awkward silence.

WHY ARE YOU HERE?

Minato was unsure if he should tell this reaper that he was, well, trying to stop another reaper. It didn't seem to matter, though, since the two stars behind his skull fixed into the teen's eyes, and suddenly Minato realized Death knew.

SO THAT IS WHAT THEY ARE UP TO THIS TIME

"You know who?"

YES

"Tell me."

NO

One of the teen's eyes twitched.

"Why?"

Death held up his hourglass with the spinning sand.

IT IS NOT MY PLACE TO TELL YOU WHAT THIS FUTURE HOLDS. I'M AFRAID YOU WILL HAVE TO FIND THE ANSWERS YOURSELF

Death turned to leave.

"How do I get out?"

The skeleton turned back to look at him.

Minato gesticulated to the seemingly infinite desert.

HOW DID YOU GET IN?

"Glowing blue floating door."

OH, ONE OF _THOSE. _CAN'T YOU MAKE ANOTHER ONE?

"I didn't make the first one."

Death drummed his bones on the scythe, thinking.

LOOK, I CAN'T SIMPLY LET SOMEONE OUT OF HERE, YOU KNOW? IT IS MY JOB TO KEEP PEOPLE _IN_ HERE, SO TO SPEAK.

"You said I wasn't supposed to be here."

YES. THIS IS ALL VERY IRREGULAR.

He drummed the fingers some more.

LOOK, I'M GOING TO DO THIS FOR YOU JUST ONCE, OKAY? NEXT TIME YOU ARE ON YOUR OWN.

Minato nodded.

Death waved a hand and a door appeared. Instead of the blue doors of the velvet room, this one was pure black and was adorned with skulls and bones. Minato stared at it, then at Death.

IT IS BUILD IN. I CAN'T MAKE SOMETHING APPEAR AND NOT HAVE SKULLS OR BONES IN IT.

Minato nodded and put a hand on the handle, then looked at Death one more time. It was weird, how different this one was from Nyx. He pondered for a second asking if the skeleton knew anything about Nyx's whereabouts, or how to stop it, but thought again and decided he would rather not risk it. Death may not take it nicely to know you are trying to stop Death.

WELL, GOOD TO TALK WITH YOU, BUT IF YOU ARE NOT DEAD NOR DYING, I'M AFRAID I CANNOT HELP PAST THIS POINT

Minato nodded.

"Thanks."

He walked through the door.

After it disappeared, Death stared at the distance for a while. He had liked the boy. He enjoyed people who had a poker face as good as his own. Not that Death couldn't read it, of course, Death could read all what was written anywhere.

THEY ARE GETTING DESPERATE, TO BREACH THE RULES SO BLATANTLY

He put a bony finger to his lips and whistled. A regal white horse ran to him from the sky, leaving a trail of flaming hooves. Death petted it and mounted.

COME, BINKY, WE HAVE WORK TO DO

And if they get it their way, he thought, we will have one giant last work to do.


	3. Chapter 3

Space. The final frontier.

It has a turtle in it.

To say it is giant is like to say the sun is lukewarm. A'Tuin is the size of a small planet, which is fitting, since it(1) nests an entire world on its back. Well, rather, it nests four elephants on its back, and in turn they nest a world on their back.

Do not ask what these animals eat, the answer would only bring more questions.

The world is called the Disc, and it is called the Disc for being Disc shaped. CONCISE, as Death would put it.

Waterfalls cascade out of the edges of the sea, but gets nested in crevices in A'Tuin's shell, and the amount not drank by the elephants(2) floats all the way back up to the clouds once the small sun completes its cycle and moves under the small world.

At the center of the Disc there is a giant mountain of ice, Cori Celesti, the home of the gods. They spend most of their time gambling on the lives of mortals, the other time spent demanding sacrifices, transforming into bulls to sleep with women who were really open minded all things considered, or ignoring prayers.

But right now, they were gambling.

The rules of the game were far too complicated, and they cheated all the time so the rules didn't really matter anyway. The board was perfect three dimensional transparent grid map of A'Tuin, and the pieces small statues of the humans below. At least the humans which mattered, which weren't many.

Very few of the lesser gods ever bothered to play. The outcome of the game was usually decided accordingly to a deity's power, and you could only move pieces you shared some affinity with. The god of the jesters would only be able to influence clowns and jokers, and they were usually too depressed to do anything useful.

But even the higher Gods, the ones with a capital G, were watching today. This one was going to be memorable, even Blind Io, the leader of all Gods, was sitting out while watching the match; both players could control pretty much anyone in the entire world. Fate was currently facing off against the Lady.

And neither were winning. Not that it mattered; both these players specialized in last minute plays which changed the outcome of the entire game.

The Lady smirked and touched one of the pieces. It was the Commander of the Ankh-Morpork Watch. It was his Fate to die that night. Despite the fact he was technically one of her pieces, the Lady didn't care; nor did any of the gods around them. The old stonefaced Commander never believed in Fate, the Lady, or in deities in general(3), and as far as the Lady was concerned, he was a means to get to a victory; while Fate concentrated in carrying out his death, the Lady would use his death to renew the Ankh / Klatchian war which would ultimately cause a temple in the name of Fate to be burned down. That move was worth 10 points.

Blind Io turned one of his hundreds of floating eyes to Offler, the Crocodile God, who was currently munching loudly on a sausage.

"1000 worshippers on Fate." He bet. Offler laughed, spitting sausage bits while doing so.

"I'll take that on and add three temples!" He remembered the last time he tried to play the Lady, and had a good idea on what she was planning. With a good multiplier of war victims, she could easily get 30 points.

Fate suddenly started his move; the Thug, colored a deep red to represent Fate's control, was approaching the Commander piece, tinted green as being on the side of the Lady. She simply smirked, her hand ready to move the near blind witness who would through a series of hilarious mistakes end up describing the Assassin as wearing the Klatchian guard uniform.

Then there was a gasp, and both stopped. Fate looked at the Lady angrily.

"No cheating!"

The Gods watching the game just rolled their eyes(4). Telling a God not to cheat in the game was like telling to a duck not to swim in a river.

But, for the first time, the Lady looked confused.

"I didn't…"

The Gods froze. The Lady not only cheated Fate all the time in their games, she also always boasted so.

Blind Io's eyes moved closer to the board. A new piece had appeared, but it was coloured neither green nor red. In fact, it seemed to be changing colors every few seconds.

"Who-"

"Ah, that would be one of mine."

All the Gods in the room started.

Between Fate and the Lady there was now a third chair, velvet blue, with person sitting on it; a slim man, leaning back on the chair casually with his fingers steepled. He wore a pristine white suit with a pitch black shirt underneath. His hair was up in a ponytail. And his face was hidden by a white mask with a butterfly wing decoration over his right eye.

Fate glared at him.

"And who the hell are you?! You can't just barge in like that and control a piece of the game!"

Behind the mask, the newcomer smiled.

"Oh, I don't intend on controlling him at all."

* * *

1 Unfortunately the first astrozoologists who attempted to get down to the bottom of the issue of A'Tuin's gender got sidetracked when their spacecraft got hijacked for an impromptu and unplanned joyride. It was a bummer, and the project kind of lost its drive after that. They decided to just assume it was a female and hope it never found a mate.

2 That is at least one of the space diet questions answered.

3 He knew they existed, it was common knowledge. He still wouldn't trust a word that would come off their damned mouths if they ever bothered to speak to him.

4 It was particularly fascinating to watch Blind Io do that.


	4. Chapter 4

One the other side of the skull door there was a street, it was nighttime, and it was deserted.

Minato's neck started vibrating and he noticed his MP3 player had turned to life again. He remembered the last time it did something like similar; seems that whatever that desert was, it was permanently Dark Hour in there.

For now he turned it off before taking a look on his surroundings; this place was giving him a bad vibe, and even if he did have battle skills enough to take on the Reaper, that wouldn't help if he were to not hear the attack coming to begin with.

Now that he took a better look, perhaps 'alley' would be a better term than a street; it was narrow, dirty, and told people 'the local government has given up on me'. The only source of light came from the moon, and he unconsciously registered the fact that there were no lampposts anywhere, nor any lights coming from the houses, and if it were not for the fact his MP3 had turned on, he'd assumed he stepped out during the Dark Hour still. Turning around, he saw that Death's door had vanished, and shrugged. Had expected no less.

Wordlessly, he put his hands on his pockets and started making his way down the streets.

Then he noticed he was in a maze. Not the sort of maze you get when people carefully design a structure, but the sort of maze you get when people carelessly design a structure; the streets were all narrow, and they call led to each other and to dead ends, and it was mostly because no streets were ever planned to be built in there and they just sort of happened once people started building houses around other houses.

It was okay, he was good with mazes. At least this one didn't have anything trying to attack him.

* * *

Bobby "Knock-Yer-Teeth-Off" Jonson wasn't a smart man, even by Ankh-Morporkian thug standards, preferring much more to let his fists and the occasional sharp blade do the job his brain couldn't. And like any stupid man he basked in small bouts of amazing logic that worked in every way except in the most fundamental aspects.

That is the reason he decided to be a thief without ever joining the Thieves' Guild, because logically, if he didn't have to pay the Guild fee, there would be more money after every hit for him. That is why he forged Assassin's Guild calling cards and put them on the victims he beat slightly more than he intended to, past the point they could walk away from it, or indeed ever walk or breath again, because he figured out that if the bodies were ever found by the Watch, they wouldn't bother looking for a non-Assassin. And that is why – and he felt particularly proud of this one – he only acted at the streets patrolled personally by Commander Vimes, who rarely had time to go into patrols himself, and was after all getting on with his age, _plus_, all the streets the Commander patrolled had nearly no competition, even this one right here, and it was on the Shades to boot! It was, he figured out, a very smart business plan.

The flaws, of course, were as such; he currently had two of the major guilds of Ankh-Morpork out for his blood, and the Watch had never been fooled by a moment for his calling card(1). And of course, he always failed to consider the logic behind _why_ the streets the Commander claimed as his patrol were almost free of competition, _even when_ he almost never set a foot on them, and _even if_ they were in the Shades.

Honestly, the only reason Bobby retained a pulse in the past year is because Fate deemed this night, he would get lucky in a street brawl against a would-be victim. Fate had been throwing stressing job after stressing job at the Commander, as well as giving him a middle flu, so that this night, as Vimes went in the only relaxing patrol he managed to sneak out to in the past few months, he would be irritated enough to try and fight back, and tired enough that even someone like Bobby could win.

And all would go according to the plan, thought Fate as the events began to unfold, if not for some sort of…of _fool_ decided to pop out of thin air right in the middle of the Shades.

And Bobby saw him before the Commander could even arrive.

* * *

"Hey pal, could ya spare some change?"

Minato turned to look at the voice, never removing his hands from his pockets. Honestly he expected some sort of yakuza wannabe, since he had run into a few of those in the past, and they were the ones who usually used that tone of voice. And, yes, well, he figured this guy could be a yakuza wannabe, if yakuza wannabe standards had plummeted. This man looked as if he couldn't find his own ass with both hands and a map, and assuming the map had a big red circle with the words "YOUR ASS IS HERE" written on top. The man's intentions were clear, judging by the way he waved his knife menacingly with his right hand, while his left hand was extended waiting for 'spare change'.

Minato stared at his hands for a few seconds.

"No."

Minato resumed walking down the street.

He managed to take about three steps before the thug got over the shock and ran to his front, blocking the passage.

"Look pal, I dun' think ya got the situation figured out. This here is what we pros call a 'mugging'."

In a quick movement, the teen grabbed the man's hand holding the knife and twisted it so he let it drop with a sharp cry of pain, and the while still keeping one hand in his pocket. He then shifted his body weight and with a swift leg sweep, the thug fell to the ground.

Minato stepped over his face and continued down the alley.

Now, as was mentioned before, Bobby wasn't the sharpest tool in the shed, and had never heard of Narrativium. Everyone knew that if a silent and mysterious stranger was mugged in a dark alley and knocked you once, you let him go and went to search for another victim(2), the same way everyone knew if a single nameless and shirtless warrior with a gruff beard and a scar over his left eye were to face five elite guards with years of training and standardized uniforms, all the bets were on the lone man.

This is why, when faced with an opponent half his size but who had just now humiliated him in every way, what he did was grab his knife and, with an enraged yell, charge at the teen.

* * *

Vimes was seething as he walked through the night. Seething was, of late, his default state of being. The cold didn't help.

He had faced a mythological dragon, he had survived an attack by flamethrower wielding dwarves on his house, he had even been sent to the past to relive a war that apparently didn't think nearly killing him only once was enough.

Yet his worst enemy was, and always will be, paperwork. The sheer amount of cases he had to read and sign everyday was overwhelming. And most of them had no _point_! He couldn't even find solace on the idea that him signing the paper was sending a serial killer to hang, or helping an innocent man get his freedom. No, most of them were about bickering people who were caught nearly killing each other for a dog who jumped over a fence and peed on his neighbors' petunias, or something just as silly.

Meanwhile the truly important cases, the cases thatmade a difference, were left for Carrot to handle. Currently they were looking for "the bugger offf" killer, and no matter how much Vimes wanted a piece of that action, the bloody paperwork wouldn't give him the time.

Plus, he was the Commander of the Watch, so he couldn't just walk down the streets doing the job of a normal watchman. What would people think? Nobody expects those on top to work, and if they did, it reflected badly on the whole system; was the Watch really so run down that even the Commander has to lower himself into doing grunt work?

It didn't matter that he _enjoyed_ grunt work. Grunt work was his whole life for years. He practically _was_ grunt work.

And that is why he would still patrol the nights, from time to time, when the stress of sitting around reading got too much for him to handle. He liked the feel of the cobblestones under his feet, and he liked the night air.

And he liked going into the Shades. It was stupid, bloody stupid, and he knew it; it was about the one place in the city that the Watch had the least control, and the place most likely for a watchman to be attacked. And despite the fact he would never coherently think so, he _loved_ the thrill of going there. It was so different from the paperwork; he could _actually_ be _in danger_! The blood always pumped a little faster at this thought. He just hoped Sybil never found out about his little trips.

Of course, nobody actually ever attacked him on the Shades when he went into patrol, for obvious reasons. He was the Commander, and even if not all of the Watchmen looked up to him like, say, Carrot did, they all respected him enough that, if he were to be mugged and killed, the Guild of the Assassins would be the least of the killer's worries. At least the Assassins kill you quickly and without pain. The Watch wasn't even allowed to kill without the Patrician's explicit order(3), so they had a long, long time to make your life a living hell. Not torturing, mind you, or at least not physically. Vimes was very clear on what would happen if he ever found out a Watchman tortured anyone. But it is amazing what sleeping in a cell for ten years with a leaky faucet down the corridor that dripped water into a bucket _just slightly_ out of a consistent rhythm did to the human mind.

All in all, Commander Vimes craved some action in his life.

And that is why, when he heard a scream a few alleys down, he immediately sprang into action.

Arriving at the scene he saw a large man on his knees, with shoeprint and a look of pain on his face. His arm was currently twisted in an unnatural way behind his back, being held in place by a young man who seemed far too weak to hold someone so much larger in such an easy way, and who had an expression that was not quite _bored_, but not really minding what he was doing either. There was a knife in the ground a few feet from the two.

The young man turned his attention to Vimes, and his eyes fell on the badge the Commander wore on his lapel. He blinked once.

"Ah, officer." He said, in a monotous tone, while the man below him whimpered "Help, I am being mugged."

* * *

1 A plain white card written "the asacins Gild wus here anD offfed tis guy, nou BUGGER OFFF" with a mustard stain on it.

2 Preferably one that isn't a grinning frail, skinny bald old man who tries to avoid combat at all times.

3 Except in self-defense, but when you are creative, lots of things may be constructed as being an attack.


	5. Chapter 5

The cell had some very interesting drawings on the walls, and the teen spent a long time appreciating them with the same apparent interest a connoisseur appreciates art. In fact, he had spent the last 5 minutes with his hands in his pockets staring at two stick figures, one of them very well-endowed while the other one was bent and had two circles on the upper torso. There were two captions above the figures; "me" and "ur mom". Truly, a work of art. He especially lauded the way the artist went against all social conventions and had the captions be inverted, so that 'ur mom' was the male and 'me' the female.

And honestly, he was slightly unnerving Nobby Nobbs, who got the jail keeper duty for the night, and Sergeant Colon, who was there on the principle that he didn't want to go home and face his wife before she went to sleep(1). He was used with inmates screaming, cursing, crying, sleeping, drawing, swearing revenge and a myriad of other actions, but it was the first time he just saw a man staring at the wall looking mildly bored for over two minutes.

Especially after Mr. Vimes had told this young man had subdued that other guy effortlessly.

And then there was the fact that if you stared at him for long enough, you noticed his hair wasn't really black, but a dark blue.

"Think he's dangerous, Sarge?" Nobby broke the silence. Colon shrugged.

"He did bring down someone twice his size," it was hard to believe, but if Vimes said so, it was the absolute truth "and on the Shades, no less. You know the only sort of people who walk in the Shades at night are dangerous people."

"The Commander was there too, sarge."

Colon coughed.

"Yes. Dangerous people or the Watch. The Watch isn't dangerous of course, we are here to protect."

"Of course, sarge. Except when we are attacked first..."

"Well, yes, certainly, but self-defen-"

"…or when they have hostages…"

"Yes, sure, but the situat-"

"…or those times we have a tingling suspicion…"

"Nobby, you-"

"…or when they look at us inna funny wa-"

"Nobby!"

"But aside that, we're as calm as little kittens." Nobby concluded.

Colon glanced at him with the corner of the eyes, to see if Nobby was smirking. But it was hard to say, what with Nobby's face; he could as well be in pain or frowning.

"Sure, Nobby, we at the watch are harmless like kittens." He eventually said.

"'course, there was that time I remember when a kitten jumped on my pa's face with its claws out and-"

"And what you think these are?" Colon suddenly shifted the topic by gesturing to Minato's mp3 player and headphones that were lying on the table next to them. As well as the evoker.

Nobby scratched his head and took a cigarette butt from behind his ear before taking a drag. There was a sign just behind him that said "thank you for not smoking", but what was the point of being a copper if you had to obey the rules all the time?

"Dunno sarge." He said plainly, before taking the evoker to take a closer look.

Minato noticed with the corner of his eye when the guard stared down the 'barrel' of the evoker without even a hint of hesitation. They had never asked him what it was (not that he would have told them), so they had absolutely no reason to assume it was not a handgun. Either this guard had just violated hundreds of safety protocols at once, or he honest-to-god never saw anything shaped like that before. He frowned slightly as the guard put the evoker back down and proceeded to handle his MP3 player with some disinterest, and carelessly too!

The door above the stairs at the end of the corridor opened up and he could see a tall and well built ginger man carry down the thug from earlier in the night. The cuffed man froze in his tracks when he saw the teen at the end of the corridor, then paled and started trying to back away, with his back firmly pressed against the ginger's chest while his feet slid uselessly against the ground. The muscular guard didn't seem to be making any effort against to keep him in place, but still wouldn't budge a centimeter.

"NONONONO! KEEP HIM AWAY FROM ME!"

The guard stared at Minato with a raised eyebrow, then opened a cell door the further away from him as possible and let the man in. He then walked to the teen's cell and took out a set of keys.

"Yo_n to be quest_"

Minato's eyes widened slightly as he looked around. Every few seconds, all sounds in the room became muffled(2). The fat one that the ugly short one had refered to as 'Sarge' caught his confusion and tried to explain.

"It's ju_ld To_ging ag_. Mu_ose to mid_"

Just as the ginger guard was going to unlock the door, all movement in the room stopped.

"Ah." Minato said, his hands on his pockets still. "So it really is here."

The shadows in the room became more prominent, the walls and floor took a sickish dark green color, and stains of what seemed to be blood sprouted here and there at random intervals. All the three guards, and the thug, had disappeared, in their place there were four dark coffins.

Bother. Now he would have to wait an before the Dark Hour ended to get out of the cell.

* * *

1 Sergeant Colon had a wonderful relationship with his wife based on the fact neither of them ever interacted with each other if they could help it. They hadn't had a fight in decades.

2 Even the slight off-rhythm water leak falling into the bucket, which if Minato would be honest was driving him slightly mad.


	6. Chapter 6

Dweebil Ironforger was an employee at a clacks tower near the edge of the city of Ankh-Morpork, and possessed a major flaw for a dwarf. He was claustrophobic. For member of a species that spends most of their lives deep underground, that could present a problem, and thus Dweebil chose the job with the least amount of enclosed space as possible.

The most traditionalists of the dwarves considered it sacrilege, but he heed them no mind, knowing deep down he was one of the most dwarvish dwarves there were; he couldn't drink ale without spilling at least over half the liquid over his shirt, he always remembered all the words for the traditional dwarves songs(1), he always followed mine signs and safety protocols, even if he did not work in a mine, and he managed to eat dwarf bread without vomiting the next day, which was a rare skill even among the deepest dwarves. Plus there was the way he, well, thought of himself as a 'he', despite the new trends that were setting in town about the whole talking about what bits you had down under.

The dwarf was half-way transmitting a message when the tower mechanisms stopped moving. As usual. With a sigh and a hop from the custom taller-than-standard work chair, and as he stepped out to the cold midnight air he noticed the tower next to him was also dark. And the next one. And the next.

The dwarf spun on his heels to stare at the opposite line of towers. All dark. He had heard of system shutdowns, but this was far too different. Something felt wrong.

That is when he heard a noise below him, and as he turned he saw a large _thing_ with thousands of limbs, crawling up the tower. As he opened his mouth to scream, a dark hand, connected to a dark arm with too many joints to be natural, grasped his mouth.

* * *

Death examined the body of the dwarf, who was in a sitting position. The skeleton held a hourglass on his left hand and his scythe on his right hand.

The dwarf was still breathing. He looked at the hourglass, and all the sand had reached the bottom. He looked at the dwarf, hearing his heartbeats.

Where was the soul?

Dweebil looked at the distance, without moving an inch. A hint of drool fell from the side of his mouth.

Where. Was. The. Soul.

Behind his skull, the two small stars changed from icy-blue to a fiery red, and his hands started shaking, his midnight black cloak waving from the intensity he held. His grip on the hourglass became so fierce that a few cracks appeared along the glass.

_WHERE IS THE SOUL?_

It was not the deep yet collected voice Death usually held. This was the voice of a soldier who has just found out the mangled body of an infant among the fallen. The hourglass suddenly shattered as he clasped his hand in anger, and the dark desert sand it contained floated slowly down, before disappearing.

This was not _him_. This was not _his_ work. This was not how people _die._

THIS ISN'T DEATH

There was nothing left of the dwarf. Not a ghost, not a memory, not an emotion, nothing to walk the desert. Dweebil wasn't dead. He was gone.

THERE IS HOPE FOR SOMETHING AFTER DEATH

Just after midnight the clacks workers from the tower over noticed the clacks just at the border of the town had stopped transmitting for far too long. They found Dweebil Ironforger staring at the horizon, and after much trying to get him to talk, decided he just went over the edge. It was not unusual for clacksmen to lose their minds after spending nights upon nights alone on the towers, and, well, he was also a pretty weird dwarf already for liking open spaces, right? They decided to take him to the madhouse, nothing else they could do.

Death could have taken his heartbeat to be merciful, but didn't.

There was nothing left to be merciful to.

* * *

Cori Celesti was in disarray. Censorebas, the minor goddess of censorship and politically correct speech, put it succinctly;

"What the asteriskasteriskasteriskasterisk?!"

Not only all the pieces on the A'Tuin gameboard had suddenly been substituted by miniature coffins, A'Tuin itself, as well as the four elephants, were transmuted into giant skeletons of the appropriate species.

The gods themselves were immune to the transmogrification, being immortal(3) beings, but it didn't mean they understood the situation, or that they approved of it.

Blind Io turned all of his thousands of eyes to glare at the masked new god (although no one in Cori Celesti was sure if this man _was_ a god. He certainly irritated the gods as much as other gods did), who seemed amused at their confusion.

"Explain." He said, at the same time pointing to the only figure in the board which had not changed in shape. It however still changed in color every so often.

"There is not much I could explain." The man in the butterfly mask said, shaking his head. "Let's just say the rules of the game have changed."

It is hard to keep track of the time without a reference, and even more so during the Dark Hour, when all the clocks stop anyway, but Minato did his best. When the hour was nearly over, he got up from the dirty bed, and tried to resume the same position he had held back when it began, and waited.

After a few minutes, the color came back to the world and all the sounds resumed. The coffins turned back into people.

The ginger policeman hesitated for a moment.

"Did you just blur?"

Minato assumed this must be the visual effect of him walking around the room as the Dark Hour froze the watchman's perception of time.

"No." he answered.

The policeman stared at him for a few seconds.

"Fine." The guard unlocked the door. "But whatever it was you didn't do, don't try not to do it again." The teen decided not to acknowledge this sentence.

"As I was saying before Old Tom started silencing," Minato briefly wondered who Old Tom was, but assumed the silencing is what was muffling the conversation just before the Dark Hour hit, "the Commander wants to interrogate you."

Minato blinked at him.

"I was attacked."

"Tell it to the Commander." Such a cliché sentence, the teen thought, but the way he said it wasn't mocking, more like a friendly suggestion.

As they passed in front of his cell, Bobby whimpered and pressed against the opposite wall, making Nobby and Colon stare at each other.

After they left, the two guards who stayed behind noticed the small puddle forming under the thug's legs.

"What you think, sarge?"

Colon thought for a while.

"I think I am glad to be down here instead of up there when the goblin snot hits the watermill."

Nobby nodded.

* * *

Minato stared at the guard guiding him, while cuffed. What was up with these uniforms anyway? Then again, back home he remembered buying medieval armor and weaponry from the police force anyway, so maybe he was just over thinking it.

Then a giant man made out of stone stopped the ginger.

"Here're the reports, sah."

The voice was like gravel.

Okay so maybe he wasn't over thinking it. He maintained his poker face flawlessly and completely hid any hint of surprise. Ever since the surreal desert, he had assumed not to be on Earth anymore, and this creature just seemed to confirm it. The stone man turned on his heels and walked away.

"Detritus is a troll. Don't act as if you never saw one." The ginger guard said as they resumed walking, without bothering to turn around. Minato's eyes twitched slightly. Whoever this guard was, he was too good at reading people, and for someone who made efforts to mask their emotions like the teen, this made him felt strangely exposed. Well, since the cat was out of the bag, he decided to be honest.

"I never did."

"New in town, then? There are plenty of trolls here." The guard started to small-talk.

"Yes."

"I understand they are pretty common at Uberwald as well, but you don't look like you would be from there. Travel much?"

Minato shrugged.

"Yeah, you look a bit young for a traveler. What, 17 years old? 18?"

"17."

"And where are you staying currently?"

Minato stopped walking and looked at the guard's back. The shift from friendly small-talk to interrogation had been at the same time jarringly obvious yet very subtle.

He decided to stay silent before following him again. The guard didn't complain or indeed made any acknowledgement that his question was unanswered. They just walked in silence until they reached a door, which the watchman respectfully knocked, before a tired voice inside told them to come in. He expected a classic movie interrogation room, but was faced instead with some sort of office.

The guard escorting him did such a by-the-book a salute that Minato briefly wondered if he was mocking the commander, who, the teen also noticed was in fact also the guard who found him during the mugging in the first place. Was this police force so run down that the commander himself had to patrol the streets during the night?

The man looked irritated. His desk was littered with papers, as was part of the floor near it, and he seemed to think the words written in them were some sort of cruel and unusual punishment invented personally for himself. The office was almost completely devoid of personality; there was no coffee mug with "the world's greatest boss" on it, nor those suitable-for-work trinkets like the chain of iron balls, or any degrees framed and mounted on the wall. The only sign of personal life that the Commander let show was a drawing he had glued to a wall, which were two vaguely humanoid shapes made out of crayon, one bigger than the other. Below them there was written "me" and "dad".

Minato sat down in a chair in front of his desk and stared. The commander stared back.

After a few seconds, when it seemed clear to the two guards the teen wasn't going to to break into tears or demand to see a lawyer or (as Vimes was completely expecting after seeing the clothes Minato was wearing) say something like "do you know who my dad is?!", the commander decided to give him some nudging.

"What's your name?"

"Minato Arisato." There was no reason to keep it hidden. They wouldn't have files on him, and it would be much more suspicious to not say.

"Right. And what sort of name is that?" the Commander looked at the teen as if he was being mocked. The ginger guard, who was still holding the saluting position, interrupted.

"Sir, if I might sir, it sounds Agatean, sir."

Vimes sighed. Yes, and the boy looked Agatean as well. Of course, _of course_ he had arrested a well-dressed foreigner. He was already expecting a very official sounding letter from Lord Vetinari the next morning and tons of more paperwork to sign. Vimes rubbed his eyes tiredly.

"Look Mr. Aminato-"

"I was being mugged." The boy interrupted, letting the error slide. Vimes snorted. He had already decided that Minato was a noble, and he quite frankly despised all nobles except the one he'd married.

"Oh? Really? Because from where I was standing, it seemed to me that you were breaking the arm the man."

The boy nodded.

"Self-defense."

"Right." The commander disagreed. The ginger guard saluted again.

"Sir, if I may, si-"

"Oh for god's sake, _at ease_, Carrot."

The ginger relaxed from his perpetual salute, but still kept a respectful air in general.

"Sir, we did find the fake calling card on the other man's pockets, sir." The guard, apparently named 'Carrot', said. "And he readily confessed not only to this crime but also to many others in the past few months that he had no way of knowing about, sir. His exact words were," Carrot looked at the ceiling as if trying to remember, "'I killed them, I really did, just please, please, please, please don't let that kid near me again'."

Minato smiled internally, even if his mouth kept still.

Vimes grimaced. He knew Carrot was right, but this meant the kid had beaten to a pulp a criminal the watch had been searching for the past three months. He needed a smoke.

"Fine. So it was… so it _probably_ was self-defense." He reluctantly admitted.

Minato looked up at him.

"Can I go?"

Vimes stared at him. He wanted to let the kid go, it would mean less of all this bloody paperwork and really, this seemed from afar to be a very open-and-shut case. Thug tries to rob noble kid, kid beats up thug. But, and there is always a 'but', the Commander was a copper, and being a copper meant being cynic, skeptical and oftentimes bloody-minded. And a nobleman, nay a noble_kid_ beating up anyone who wasn't a servant is something he would never readily believe in. Plus…

"What were you doing in the Shades?"

Minato blinked.

"Where?"

Suddenly the Commander was a few inches from his nose, glaring daggers at his eyes.

"You want me to believe a kid like you was just taking a nightly stroll on the most dangerous place in Ankh-Morpork? An Agatean kid, dressed with," he made a gesture to the standard male Gekkoukan High uniform Minato still wore, "the kind of posh clothes Vetinari's son would wear, if he ever had one? And a kid capable of taking down a wanted criminal that eluded two of the major guilds and the Watch for months?"

The teen shrugged. That was somehow more offensive to the captain than a witty comeback would have been.

"Carrot, who searched the boy?"

"Corporal Nobbs, sir."

"Go down to the cells and bring all the kid's belongings here. Even the ones Nobby pocketed."

"Right away sir."

After the guard left, the commander sat back on his chair with a sigh. Despite the arrest, Minato was a little sorry for him. He looked as if he hadn't slept in days. Suddenly he opened one eye, and gave the teen a piece of blank paper and a pen.

"Write down your name."

Minato blinked, but did as was told.

"No, not like that. Write it in _Agatean._"

Ah. Well. Minato considered his options; the guard was already pretty suspicious of him while assuming he was from this… Agate place. The suspicion was surely only going to increase if the boy were not from there. But how the hell would he write in a language he never saw before? Unless…

He took the pen again and wrote down the kanjis that made up his name, as opposite to the western alphabet reading. The commander stared at it for a few seconds and grunted.

That _looked_ like Agatean writing, sure. Of course, he had never seen Agatean writing before, but the appearance was foreign enough. Honestly he just half expected for the teen to freeze and confess to… something. Whatever it was he had to confess to. Everyone has to confess to something.

There was a knock at the door, and Carrot walked back in, with a worried look.

"Sir, you better take a look at this."

He put down on the desk MP3 player and the evoker, as well as some yen that Nobby had pocketed on the basis that it looked like money so it must be worth something.

"Okay, so, some Agatean money, an… whatever the hell this is" he held and dismissed the MP3 player "and a…"

He stopped. The last item seemed like a small stylized crossbow, only without a string or the extra curved horizontal bit at the top where the string went. He would have dismissed it, if some years previously he hadn't seem something eerily similar.

"Is this a _Gonne_?!"

Oh, so they knew what guns were, Minato thought. The complicated things slightly. If the laws for firearms here were as strict as back in Japan, he would have some explaining to do. Then again, the evoker wouldn't really kill anyone, so…

"It's just a replica."

That didn't have the effect he expected. Instead of calming down, the two guards stared at him as if he had confessed to murder, but neither said anything.

"I mean, it's just a copy. Not a real gun."

"A copy." Said Vimes flatly.

Minato nodded.

"I see. Carrot." He handed the evoker to the ginger, and to Minato's horror, the guard immediately, and with surprisingly ease, snapped it in half.

"Hey! What are you-!" the teen tried to get up, at least once with his face showing some emotion, even if his reaction was much more calm than what he really felt.

In a swift move, both Vimes and Carrot had their swords at his neck, and Minato heard some movement behind him that indicated other guards must have entered the room hearing the commotion.

"Now, _boy_, you are going to sit down, with your hands where we can see them, and calmly explain to us where the hell you managed to find bloody Gonne blueprints."

The shock of seeing his evoker snapped broken, Minato's face returned to its usual emotionless expression, despite the fact inside he was at turmoil. No evoker meant no Personas. No Personas meant he was at every shadow's mercy if they ever found him.

And if he remembered well, the moon was almost full…

* * *

1 They were all "gold"(2), but it needed a true dwarf to remember which of the 44 different intonations to give the word.

2 Except when they were hi-ho.

3 For a certain understanding of 'immortal'. A god would die from a minor wound if there was nobody to believe they could survive it.


	7. Chapter 7

Death was calm. He lacked glands, and as such couldn't keep strong emotions for long. That did not mean he changed his views. He currently sat with his bony fingers steepled, thinking, on his black desk on his black room inside his black house in a realm he crafted from scratch, where everything was different shades of black(1) despite his best wishes. It was build-in, unfortunately. The only color in this entire world came from Albert, his servant, or the golden fields of corn in front of his house, which he had created from living memory from a brief time when he were... no, better leave the past as the past.

This… _thing_ had destroyed a soul. A soul! The thing that _was_ the darkness behind the eyes! The two stars that were his own eyes briefly flashed red again at the thought. The only thing that could survive after Death collected his toll, and it was ripped apart.

Despite his nature, Death never held ill will towards the living. He liked the living, even. All he did was help them find their way after their breath and heartbeats stopped. It was a job he was proud of, and for the first time, he couldn't perform it. He could not help someone cross the desert, because there was not a someone there, not even a memory. And Death knew – he could remember the future, even when the future changed (and lately, it had been changing far too much, at each passing second) – he _knew_ Dweebil would not be the last one.

He needed to do something. But first…

I NEED TO LEARN MORE ABOUT THIS

These beings were not part of his world; _they_ had brought them. Death knew all there was to know, but only so far as his jurisdiction went, and up until a few days ago, it went everywhere. Now everywhere had something from somewhere else.

Death concentrated, trying to find out where – ah! There! Death would have smiled, if he weren't already unable to stop doing so. And it was somewhere _they_ couldn't go, to boot. You needed to have a self to find that place, and if there was something they hated, it was individuality.

But... those who ran that place were powerful enough to banish him if they wished so. He needed to find an excuse to go there uninvited and be accepted. How did humans do it, again? He looked up as his servant walked into the room, dusting it out of principle(2) and the idea occurred to him.

ALBERT, HOW ARE THE KITCHEN SUPPLIES?

* * *

"Welcome, to the Velvet Room."

Minato opened one eye, feeling dead inside. The interrogation, after the discovery of the 'Gonne', had been halted, mostly because the teen shut his mouth and refused to open it again, least he risked digging a deeper grave. He, or rather, his body, was currently sleeping on the cells, this time with two competent guards keeping watch instead of the fat sergeant and the ugly pickpocket.

"It seems you have been put in quite a conundrum." Igor chuckled.

"Evoker's gone." Minato said flatly.

"Indeed." Igor closed his eyes, but kept the smile "…but it may come to a surprise for you to learn that it would not have mattered much, either way."

Minato looked up. What?

Elisabeth cut in;

"The power that helped you create your personas, the links that were forged to last forever… are not from this world."

The teen blinked. Did it mean...?

"Your links left you when you left your world. Should you return there, they would be re-opened, but here…" he shook her head with a bright smile "I'm afraid you would only be able to invoke Orpheus." She giggled, hiding her mouth with her hand.

Which was quite useless by the end of the trip, Minato thought to himself looking down, as Elizabeth kept on smiling at his misfortune. He knew her well enough to know she didn't mean to offend, she just... wasn't normal, when you came down to it.

"But that does not mean you cannot forge new bonds on this new world." She added, and Minato looked up again "A fresh start and new opportunities. Maybe even new Personas for the Compendium; a new world with new myths."

So there was a chance. Still, the hope was fleeting.

"But the evoker-"

"Do you know why the evoker was shaped as a tool of death?" Igor interrupted, opening his eyes. "Tell me, how did you feel when you first used it? And from them on?"

Minato remembered cleary. Putting the gun against his own head, even without knowing it wasn't a real gun, and pulling the trigger…

"It felt like dying." He stated flatly "Whenever I used it, it felt as if I died. For a few seconds."

Igor nodded.

"Indeed, the fake gun was designed to make the user believe death's grasp had reached them. And do you know why Personas answered that call?"

Minato only stared. He never much cared to question how the magic gun worked properly. It was magic.

"Personas are a manifestation of your 'self'; the 'who' you really are behind the masks you show the world, and above all, the 'who' behind the masks you show to yourself." Elizabeth said. "It is not anyone who can accept who they are, without denial brought by shame or regrets, and so their portential remains unlocked. But that changes upon facing death; when you believe there will be no reason to keep the mask on, when life is over, so there is no reason why pretend to not be the person you know you are, you unconsciously shed off your mask, revealing your true self to all… including you."

Igor continued;

"The reason the evoker tricked you into thinking you died is so that you would stop, for a fleeting second, worrying about keeping your mask. And with the mask gone, your 'true self' could be manifested. Of course," he added with a smile, "for a Fool like yourself, the 'true self' was not static. You have the rare gift of a truly open mind, Minato, it is not many who are as fluid and capable of change."

The teen had by now a glimmer of hope.

"You mean that if I could accept me for who I really am…"

"… you would no longer need an evoker."

Minato's eyes, which were up until now more dead than usual, seemed more focused.

"How?"

Igor and Elizabeth smiled at his new determination.

"All you have to d-"

_Knock knock knock_

Igor stopped on his tracks, looking confused. He turned to look at Elizabeth, who seemed as lost and shrugged.

_Knock knock knock_

"Excuse me for a second." Igor got up from his chair and walked to a bookcase/wall. Minato had never seen stand, and noticed the... uh... 'man'? Had a terrible hunchback. As he approached the bookcase, a blue door appeared.

_Knock knock knock_

"This has never…" he muttered as he grabbed and opened it.

HELLO NEIGHBOUR, came a voice, and from his sitting angle Minato could see a bony hand holding a cup, COULD YOU SPARE A SOME SUGAR?

* * *

"How… How did you get in here?"

Igor was baffled, which was a sight Minato thought he would never see.

MY JOB IS GETTING EVERYWHERE. EVENTUALLY. Death said, BUT I THOUGHT POLITE TO KNOCK THIS TIME

He put his head inside the frame and looked around.

NICE PLACE YOU HAVE. AH, HELLO THERE

He gave Minato a short wave. The teen couldn't help but wave back. Elizabeth looked as if she should burst into laughter at any moment from Igor's reaction.

PLEASANTRIES OUT OF THE WAY, the empty cup on Death's hand disappeared, since he no longer needed an excuse to knock, I NEED TO KNOW ABOUT THIS OTHER... 'DEATH'

Igor looked at Death up and down.

"Why?"

The skeleton's eyes flashed for a second.

BECAUSE IT IS WRONG

Igor stared at the blue stars inside the skull for a few seconds, then grinned his usual grin, while taking a deep bow out of the way so that Death could walk in, starting his usual presentation.

"Welcome, to the Velvet Room. This place exists between dream and reality, mat-"

IT IS ABOUT THREE WAVELENGHTS SOUTH OF MY REALM said Death, nodding and walking in.

At this Elizabeth started to lose her ability to control the giggling. Igor didn't seem very pleased. He turned to face her.

"Elizabeth dear, please instruct Mr. Arisato on how to accept his true self, me and Mr…."

DOOR

Igor turned to face the reaper.

MY NAME IS BILL DOOR

Elizabeth let out a perceivable snort hiding her mouth with her hand.

"A fine name." Igor said, letting out an annoyed glance at his assistant. "Me and Mr. Door will be discussing the nature of the Fall. I trust you can help Mr. Arisato by yourself."

"S-sure…" she said, managing to control her giggling. Igor nodded, and he and Death walked through another door that appeared in the middle of the long corridor.

Elizabeth walked up to Minato and gestured for him to get up, using her finger to clean up a tear that had formed from the strain of not flat-out laughing at the rare sight of Igor loosing his composure. When she reached the teen, she put on her serious face, by which is to be understood she was smiling knowingly. She motioned for him to stand up in the middle of the corridor, and he obeyed.

"I have to warn you that the process does not come without a risk. Should you face your true self and not like what you see… your true self may not like you as well. There are better ways to go than being murdered by your own thoughts and feelings."

Minato nodded.

"Are you still sure?" her smiled became even more sweet "'Of thy own free will'?"

He nodded again.

"Then, good luck." she raised her hand and flicked him in the forehead.

And the strength of her finger sent him flying back and tumbling for about ten meters through the book corridor.

Only, he realized as he got up, he was still standing in front of her. Or rather, his body was still in front of her. He looked down, and realized that his body was also… well, where he was. How did this work? His _real_ real body should still be sleeping in the cell, so…

He saw his own 'body', in front of Elizabeth, turn around to face him. It had the same bored expression Minato usually sported, and the same mannerisms – the way it would keep a hand in his pocket, the slightly pompous (now that he saw it from outside, did he really arch his back that way?) way of standing… the only difference was its eyes; instead of the gray of the teen's eyes, this other Minato had bright yellow ones.

"I am a shadow," he said in a monotone "the true self."

* * *

1 No, not even grey. Nothing even close to white, unless you counted the bone decorations in some places, everything else was just blacks and deeper blacks.

2 Death never bothered to create dust into his realm. Still, both he and his servant knew dusting is something servants do, and neither of them wanted to drop the farce.

* * *

**A/N**

DemonRaily Thank you for the very first positive review (and well, very first review at all). I plan to explain the slight overreaction they have for the Gonne in a few chapters, though I think most people who have read Men at Arms can guess out what it will be. As for the ease Carrot snapped the evoker in half, well, yeah, huh... I got nuthin'. Carrot is in the books many times described to be unnaturally strong, but even by those standards I think I may have exagerated for the sake of the scene. Then again the disc runs on Narrativium, so anything that would work for a scene will probably happen. Also, I also dislike Yukari's route (Chihiro is may waifu, except when it's Chie). I only stuck with it because the game seems to make it pretty clear it is supposed to be the canon relationship, and I'll try to stick with the canon whenever possible, except when I think it would be cool to do otherwise (like Death breaking the hourglass in anger. That should have stopped the dwarf's heart immediatelly.)

On a more general note, I have already written the entire scene of Minato facing his Shadow, but when I reached the end of it I re-read and was like "no this is stupid" so I'm trying to fix it, with varying degrees of success. May take a while for the next chapter to come out, is what I'm trying to say.


	8. Chapter 8

It was a weirder sensation than looking into a mirror, because the body you see in the mirror at least has the decency of mimicking you. Seeing your own body moving without you willing every movement felt… wrong.

And Minato realized they were no longer in the Velvet Room, but at… Gekkoukan high? What the… he spun around to take a better look. No… he was definitely at the entrance of Gekkoukan high, but… It was obvious it was not the real deal. The cherry trees were in full bloom and it was apparently the middle of the day, but the pink of the cherries and the blue of the sky were substituted by plain grey. It was as if someone had filtered the world through a grayscale. Plus, Tartarus was active, towering against the sky, ignoring the fact the sun was still out and about. Elizabeth was nowhere to be seen.

There were students walking all around them. Or rather, there were semi-transparent humanoids with no eyes, dressed as students… or rather… Minato had a long look at the nearest pair of students… they were dolls, albeit very realistic ones if you ignored the lack of eyes. If you squinted your eyes hard enough, you could see the puppeteering strings that controlled their every action. Yet, they moved like normal people would, instead of the limp unnatural movements puppets have.

All the 'students' ignored Tartarus as if it was something natural.

"Good to be back, isn't it." Minato spun around to look at his other self, the one with yellow eyes. He was staring up at the tower in a nostalgic way. "It is exactly as I remember it."

The yellow eyed copy extended his hand, and briefly a few strings flashed. A female student stopped on her tracks, ran to him, and kneeled, offering him the soda she'd (pretended to have) been drinking. After grabbing it, the shadow kicked the puppet to the ground.

Minato frowned a little.

"Oh, don't pretend you are shocked." He did something Minato couldn't see from the angle he was standing, but involved waving his hand in front of his own face. The transparent puppet-girl suddenly got up and walked back to where she had been, while every other puppet ignored the scene "See? They have no minds of their own. None worthy thinking about, at any rate." He walked to a male student and punched him in the face. The puppet acted hurt.

"Oh yeah, they react. But thinking? That is far beyond them." He sipped the soda. "Heh. Unlimited potential. The Fool. I could play the idiots like a fiddle, couldn't I? Do whatever I wanted to whoever I wanted." To prove his point, he threw the now empty can on the head of a woman who walked nearby, and who 'looked' back at him enraged "And all I needed was to," he waved the hand in front of his own face again, but this time Minato managed to have a good look on what it did; on his face there was now a blank mask with the word 'sorry' written on it, "…pretend."

Seeing the mask, the woman immediately forgave him, and smiled. The shadow only shook its head, disgusted.

"They are cattle. Tell me, me, how could we put up with these morons?"

That stupid son of mineblahblahblah I'mma fucking useless drunk

Minato turned to see, standing behind him, a puppet dressed in monk garbs. It also had no eyes, but in their place, it had the Tower Arcana card tattooed. It also seemed to be falling to the ground drunk in the worst of the ways.

"That bald idiot. And I had to listen to his life story every. Single. Night. No wonder his family hated him."

He walked to the monk and in his face appeared a blank mask with the word "understanding" on it.

"Oooh, nooo, I feel soooooo bad for you." The other Minato said in a mocking tone. He started wiggling his fingers, and strings of light briefly connected from the fingertips, and replaced the monk's, for the lack of a better word, 'natural' strings.

The monk smiled despite the obvious sarcasm and quite literal manipulation. The yellow-eyed shadow smiled creeply for a second, and suddenly gave a hard tug on the strings.

The monk immediately put his hands on his own face, and violently ripped it off. It was obviously in pain, but the shadow ignored it, pulling the strings so that the monk's now trembling hands gave him the card that was its face.

Minato clenched his fists. The now faceless monk fell to the ground, twitching, and disappeared.

"Means to an end." The shadow said, removing the mask. "Did you really like spending time with him, me?"

"I-" Minato started, but another voice interrupted.

Ze Zapan iz za Zapanese sempai kawaii bakabaka durrrrr

Minato turned and there stood a Gekkoukan student with blonde hair and holding a black fan. Instead of eyes, he had the Temperance Arcana card tattooed to his face. His fan had a baguette and the word 'retard' written on it.

"And what about the cheese eating surrender monkey?" his face was suddenly a blank mask written 'friendly'. The strings attached to the new puppet.

"Hey retard, it sure feels okay to be your friend before you go back to your shithole of a country."

Zank you friend!, the shadow was making the puppet do a silly dance while it talked. Then suddenly another yank, and it too ripped its own face.

The student disappeared, leaving a card.

"I sure was a great friend to him, wasn't I? Remember all the times you spent talking to him after you got this?" He said, picking up the card. "Nah, you don't. Because you never did. Once we had this 'eternal friendship' in card form, we were free to let them disappear from our lives."

"That isn't-"

Hey, hey, can you be my big bro!

A schoolgirl with no face, but the Hanged Man Arcana, appeared next to them.

"Ah yes, the brat. Too young." He sighed. "Doesn't mean I couldn't invest long-term."

The mask now read "caring". The light strings flew again.

"Heey there brat. Don't worry, it's not entirely your fault your parents hate you."

The girl smiled.

When I grow up, I want you to have my body, big bro!

Tug. Face. Card.

"Shame I never got to see her grow up. She was developing well."

Minato narrowed his eyes.

I'm dying, here let me bore you with a stupid tale

He turned again and there was a pale young man with the Sun Arcana for a face.

The other 'Minato' walked up to him, the mask now reading 'concerned'.

"I feel bad for you now love me enough to complete this stupid link before you kick the bucket."

Once again, the now cardless, faceless body fell to the ground.

The other Minato smirked.

"At least this one had died literally, instead of just figuratively to me. Hey, remember how much time you spent crying over his death? Trick question, I didn't!"

Minato flinched a little. Sure, he hadn't cried, but that didn't mean he didn't feel-

"You're lying, you know?" The shadow interrupted his thoughts, as if he could read them.

Minato looked at 'Minato'.

"I never bothered with them. I needed the power, and so I put up with these boring, useless puppets."

Durrr could you be our soooon?

I'm so stupid I don't even know what I want money for!

My daaad won't let me live my liiiife

I used to be an ace athlete, but then I took an injury to the knee

Derperp the teacher totally has the hots for mee

I do nothing but run everyday instead of doing something useful

I need to make others obey the rules because of my own insecurityyy

I eat to forget the fact nobody loves me

All around Minato, new people appeared, all of them terrible caricatures of those he had met, and each with a card where their eyes should be. His other self went in front of them one by one, srings of light flashing all around, with the words on his mask changing; 'wise', 'happy', 'sad', 'helpful', 'encouraging'; the words started appearing faster than disappearing, and by the point the last puppet disappeared, it was full of scribbles that crisscrossed each other in a way to make them unreadable.

"Oooh, what great friends they were. Don't you agree?" the shadow was now panting. "With their stupid problems and petty personalities? This is how you remember them. Annoying, useless people who you had to talk to. With some exceptions, of course."

Master!

A female student appeared, blushing, and wearing glasses. In her face was the Justice Arcana. The shadow moved the strings so that she fell on her feet and started kissing them.

They all say I am a thief, but not you master! I love you!

As she kept the worship, another female voice appeared;

Master!

A very tanned puppet appeared, and threw herself at 'Minato's' arms. She was wearing a very revealing set of sports gear. Her face contained the Strength Arcana. Another set of strings came out of the fingers, and now she too was on her knees.

Master, can you protect me from the bullies? Master, I love you!

Master!

An adult with short brown hair and cosplaying as a character from a game Minato used to play online, also appeared and started making out with his other self. Yet more strings came out, and she kneeled to worship him as the others.

We never met face to face… but I want you to have me!

The yellow eyed Minato looked at the orginal, while still demonstrating some incredible puppetwork with the three sets of strings.

"Oh, it was hard to control them all, I admit, but it felt great, didn't it?" he looked at the three female puppets "any of the women I wanted, and all I needed" all the scribbles in his mask disappeared, and turned into the words 'I love you', "was to lie."

Seeing the mask, the three women squealed in delight.

"I didn't." Minato suddenly spoke. And the shadow suddenly stopped moving the strings. The dolls fell lifeless.

And he hadn't. They had confessed to him, yes, but he had rejected them all.

"No… I didn't," agreed the masked Minato, "I didn't kiss them. I didn't have them even though they wanted it. But…" he started moving the strings again so that the puppets fought each other at his feet for his attention, "…I made sure they wanted it."

Minato started shaking.

"I managed to pull the strings and have links without seducing the men… I didn't have to make these bitches fall for me, but it felt sooooo good to do so. To see their gullible little eyes shine whenever they thought they had a chance. To see the jealousy on the man's faces when they saw me talking with a different hottie every day."

"But in the end, they too were just means to an end." he unceremoniously pulled the strings, and the three puppets screamed as they ripped their cards off to give him. "Yeah… they were entertaining for a while, but let's be honest, there were bigger fish I could fry."

Three new puppets appeared; a teal colored puppet girl appeared, in her face the Priestess Arcana. A tall long haired redhead with the Empress Arcana. And a blonde girl with mechanical parts around her arms and legs, in her face the Aeon Arcana. The shadow moved his hands, and the strings moved the teal haired puppet and the red head each to hug him from one side, while the half-robot kneeled by his feet and held one of his legs.

"It was so easy to manipulate them." the Shadow's hands moved so that they puppets cuddled with him "it was all the mask, really. But you know that, don't you, me?" He tugged the strings one final time, and stood still after collecting the three cards. "They never were friends. You can be yourself around friends. Yet you were never… me… around them. They are pawns. Something to be sacrificed once they get to the end of the board. Except one, of course."

He stared somewhere behind Minato's shoulder, and the teen spun around to see. Minato's usually stoic face contorted into pain.

There was a final puppet, with shoulder-length brown hair and dressed in pink. She was suspended by thousands of strings, which limited all her movements, each and every limb. Her face contained the Lovers Arcana, but it was hard to see due the fact the strings also wrapped around her head, keeping her mouth shut and 'eyes'and ears closed.

"And here is have the winner. I did make the others love the mask, dance to my tunes…" the shadow walked to the doll and put a hand on her face, tenderly "but her, I needed to make sure. After all, I love her, do I not? That means I can't let her move, or see, or hear. After all, if she could move to remove my mask, see my true face or hear my real thoughts then she could notice. Notice that this," he tapped his mask "is all you are. Notice what I truly am, and what I have done to all around me."

"Tell me, me, you think she would still love us" he placed a hand on her chin to turn her so she would face directly at him, and the strings over her face fell and disappeared. He moved his other hand to remove his mask, "If she saw me as I really-"

Before he could finish the sentence, Minato punched him in the face.

His other self fell to the ground, and Gekkoukan and all the 'memories' disappeared. They were now in a pitch black space, only the two of them.

The teen noticed his yellow eyed counterpart was trembling, and assumed it was anger, just as the one he was feeling, but…

"…hahaHAHAHA! It HURTS, doesn't it? To see your own thoughts unfiltered? To see what you really are? These were not lasting friendships we had, you stupid kid, this was a game! A game where you tell robots what they want to hear until your get a card for it! You made people dance to your tune while you pretended to be someone they would love. But they never loved you, did they? They loved the things you never were."

The other Minato raised slowly, now sporting a maddened grin that resembled nothing to Minato's usual stoic expression. The original Minato fell to the ground, on fours.

"…'re me…" he said weakly.

"The lonely, lonely child, hiding his true feelings from all! How many friends did you have before Gekkoukan, can you even remember?"

"…you're me…" Minato said a little more loudly. The other self didn't seem to pay him any attention.

"Trick question! You never had any fucking friends!"

Minato got up from his position and stood calm, his face carefully blank. He pointed to the yellow eyed Minato, with his hands on his pockets.

"I accept that you are me, and I am you."

The shadow stared the teen for a few seconds.

"PFAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" he suddenly fell on the floor and started slapping it in a maddened laughing fit "You stupid idiot! I am you, do you really think you can use the mask and strings on me?!"

And then the teen noticed that his hands, which he was sure were in his pockets right now, were instead stretched in front of him, with strings of light coming out of his own fingers and attaching to his shadow's joints. The shadow grabbed them and pulled, causing Minato to fall.

The teen took his now strings-free fingertips to his own face, and now instead of his eyes, nose or mouth, all he could feel was smooth skin. With some horror, he pulled at it, and a white mask apparently made out of his own skin was ripped off. It read "I accept you" on it.

"You can say that you accept me how many times you want, but it won't mean a thing if you don't believe the words. And you can't believe them," his other self suddenly started emanating some sort of dark energy and growing in size "because it would hurt too much for ME TO EXIST, his voice suddenly became as ethereal as Death's, BUT I DO. AND SOON, YOU WON'T.

The other Minato was now gigantic, but no longer even humanoid. He now was a giant pristine white mask, with disconcertingly realistic eye sockets, but without eyes, and a mouth without teeth. Where a human would have a nose, this mask was perfectly smooth. It vomited a set of puppets, one representing each S.E.E.S. members, even the ones who didn't have a Link or were deceased. The strings entered its mouth and were apparently controlled from there.

I AM A SHADOW. THE TRUE SELF.

Minato stared at the monster. How- how could he accept this grotesque thing as part of himself? All those… those lies it said, it…

He suddenly had to dodge clumsly because a puppet cleary representing Junpei waved a claymore vertically, Which ended hitting the ground where he had been standing on instead. As soon as he got up, he ducked under a straight from a puppet version of Akihito. His mind, however, was barely registering the movements of his body while it raced to find a way to deny all it had heard up until now.

And the worse part is that despite his better efforts, he couldn't. Yes, (he moved his head barely in time to avoid a spear) the monk had been an annoying drunk before he got to know him better. Yes, he felt the urge (a puppet-Aigis rocket grazed his jacket, but exploded behind him) to punch Tanaka in the face quite a lot when they met. Yes, it had felt great to have the girls fawning over him left and righ- ouch (a Puppet Mitsuru's sword cut his cheek lightly). And yes, the mask and strings symbolism of this all wasnt lost in him. He knew (a wolf shaped puppet jumped at him, but missed) he had deceived all these people once he figured they held the Arcanas he needed. Would he ever talk to that fat kid if he had nothing to talk from it? Or the foreign student? Even if he did, would he ever bother becoming their friend? Had he even become their friend at all? He never acted the way he wanted around them. He acted in the way he felt sure they would like. Did any of these people even care about him, or all they cared ( about was the... The persona he created to please each of them? If he had behaved as he really was, how many of them would have bothered to give him the time of the day.

A puppet pointed an arrow to his face. Would she have cared about him if not for the mask and strings? She readied to release the string.

Minato stared at her. Accepting your true self... he knew something that was part of his true self.

"I truly love her."

The hand holding the arrow stopped. Minato looked up to the floating mask, who was staring at him waiting

"And I truly liked all of them."

The mask didn`t move, but there was a hint of... approval?

"Even if… even if I did manipulate them…" Minato continued, not without looking ashamed "It was because I was afraid of losing them, to be alone again." He noticed tears were coming ouf of his eyes. The shadow started to diminish.

"And this goes to all of them." All around him, the social links from his past started to appear, only now they sported natural-looking faces instead of mocking cards. "I truly liked them, even if- even if not always. Mutatsu did drink too much, and, and Bebe was an annoying brat from time to time, and, and…"

By now the shadow was barely taller than himself.

"And yes! I hid you from them! I… the me that knew I was not being myself whenever I talked to them, the me who knew I had an ulterior motive not to simply punch Tanaka on the first days I met him or, or not to tell Nozomi to stop stuffing his face like a pig, or to pretend I liked Akinari's tale more than I did…"

The shadow had now returned to looking just like himself, but still with those yellow eyes.

"The part of me that said I would never have known half these people if… if I didn't need to. That is afraid they would never want you."

Minato got up, and stared his other self in the eyes.

"You are not me." The shadow flickered.

"But you are part of me. An important part I've been denying, ever since I started gathering the social links."

The shadow looked at Minato and nodded, before walking inside the teen's body.

Suddenly he felt… something. A feeling he could not put into words. It was as if some huge weight had been lifted from his shoulders, only times a hundred.

He raised one hand with the palm facing up.

"Per…"

A spinning card appeared on it. It had the Fool engraved.

"…so…"

He felt a rush of energy he had never felt before.

"…na!"

He crushed the card with his hand, and with the sound of glass shattering, Orpheus appeared in front of him., floating on the air. Without opening it's mouth or making any sound, the words made their way to the teen's head;

_I am Thou_

Minato nodded at it.

"...and Thou art I"

The persona burst like shattering glass, and the effect continued past the boundaries of it's body; the darkness around them started to break down and disappear starting from the point where Orpheus had stood.

"Welcome back, to the Velvet Room."

Behind the 'layer' of Darkness, the blue-ish corridor could be seen. Igor was again sitting on the end of the table, Elizabeth by his side, smiling. Death was sitting on his right (to Minato's left), drinking a cup of tea. Or pretending to drink to be polite, at the very least.

"I trust you have gained the insight of who you really are?" Igor asked, already knowing the answer.

Minato nodded.

"I'm kind of a jerk."

Elizabeth chuckled.

WE ALL ARE, DEEP DOWN. BELIEVE ME.

Death sipped the tea, before getting up.

THANK YOU FOR YOUR HELP, MR. IGOR. I WILL NEED SOME TIME TO PONDER UPON THIS INFORMATION.

"Now, now, feel free to visit whenever you want. I must say it is rare for us to have unexpected visitors. Ah, and Elizabeth?"

The girl nodded and walked up to Death, before giving him a blue key. The skeleton looked at it.

YOU DO REALISE I DON'T NEED THIS, RIGHT? I AM DEATH, 'GAINST WHOM NO LOCK WILL HOLD, NOR FASTEN'D PORTAL BAR?

"It is traditional." Igor said simply. Death nodded.

IN THAT CASE, THANK YOU

He pocketed the key inside his robe.

"And this is on the house." She gave him a cup of sugar. "Do appear more often. It is rare to see the Velvet Room so lively."

IT IS RARE TO HEAR SOMEONE SAY I LIVEN UP THE PLACE

He turned to walk out through a black door with skulls which appeared, but then turned to face Minato.

SOMETHING TELLS ME WE WILL BE MEETING A LOT. GOOD LUCK ON WHATEVER YOU ARE DOING.

Minato just nodded.

"You too."

He opened the door and left. Minato could briefly get a glimpse of a dark house at the distance, under a dark sky, and above a dark earth, surrounded by dark trees and general darkness. And a small golden field of wheat.

The door slammed shut.

"Well, it is about time you woke up as well." Igor said to Minato. "The next time you come in here, it will be on thy own free will."

The teen nodded. This had been a tiring night, and he just hoped his body at least would be well-rested, even if his mind wasn't.

The usual blue door appeared behind the chair opposite to igor's, and he stepped through it.

He immediately woke up with a grunt; a woman dressed in uniform was shaking him.

"Wake up, the Patrician wants to see you."

* * *

**A/N**

I still don't like how this chapter turned out. :|

But I rewrote it 7 times and it doesn't seem to get any better than this, and it was getting frustrating. I might re-do it later, but for now I want to move on with the overall story. True to Persona fashion, the 'intro' is getting far longer than I had predicted.


	9. Chapter 9

Death pondered over the information Igor had told him. It had been... a lot of information really. The long-nosed man made no point to withhold everything he knew about how Minato had defeated Nyx. He also was pretty clear in saying Death would never be able to defeat the eing himself.

The skeleton did not protest. The Disc was a world of stories. Death knew. And a boy growing in strenght for a year with the help of his mentors to seal away a foe far too powerful for him to realistically have a chance? That was a tale, right there. No, Death would not be able to win, it would take a human to fit the archetype. Even that one time in the past, the one time a story allowed him to win, it was merely because he were Bill Door, not the Reaper.

That did not mean he couldn't help. Stories, even those without 'hi' in front of the word, tended to repeat themselves. Even if Minato were a Wild Card who can trumph the power of the stories, his chances would increase much more if the story this time was similar to the one were he already won.

Death knew stories. He was in all of them, near the end. He could help with that.

* * *

Minato was currently in a pitch black cart being moved by pitch dark horses, moving down a busy street on his way to the Palace. The cart seemed too... 'noble' might be a good word(1), to be standard policeman issue. And the driver was dressed sharply in black, instead of the dirty brownish watchman uniform. He had a nagging feeling he was, in other words, in a cart that belonged to this place's equivalent of a secret service. He had been handcuffed.

The threat of the situation was lessened by the fact the cart was currently tilted to one side, cortesy of Detritus, the troll watchman he'd met on the previous day, who was currently sitting accross from him and whose weight was pressing down on this side of the cart. Whoever sent the vehicle however seemed to predict the troll would be onboard, because there were six horses pulling what was supposed to be a a two-horse cart. to account for the weight. Even so, their speed was barely a crawl. Minato was the nagging impression the wheel had also stuck under the troll's weight since the sound of steel grinding against the floor could easily be heard coming from outside.

And of course, now that Orpheus could be called without the need of an evoker, Minato had a concealed humanoid weapon 24/7. That made most situations seem less threatening. Still, it would be bad form to run from the police in the middle of the day while summoning a monster that creates fire at will, and he didn't need the attention.

The Commander was also sitting on the cart, to the troll's left. Despite the tilted angle, he was sitting perfectly balanced, with his arms crossed and frowning at the floor in such a way that Minato couldn't see his eyes. He hadn't moved an inch since they sat down, and the teen was starting to think he was, in fact, asleep. Still, there were a few tells, such as the fact his swordhand was resting on top of his sword handle, that said it wouldn't be a good idea to wake him up or make a break for it.

To Minato's right there was a... short... watchman. And by short he meant a dwarf, but he refrained on commenting. Then again Minato rarely commented on anything if it wasn't asked directly to him. Instead, he carefully avoided looking at the dwarf or the troll in that way that people everywhere avoid looking at other people's differences, which somehow managed to tell how much different they really were.(2) In turn,the dwarf was from time to time shooting glances at him in that way that makes clear they want to ask questions but can't, and the troll was staring at Minato's face with apparent disinterest, like someone would watch a wall.

So he settled on watching the city through the window. It seemed to the teen that there should not be so many people up and about so early in the morning.

The city they seemed at the same time stereotypically medieval, while sprinkled with the worst parts of modern life. He could almost call it steampunk if not for a minor detail (3). Here and there he could see trolls looming over the smaller humans, and dwarves were also pretty numeric, even though humans seemed to be the predominant species. All caucasian, too, he didn't see anyone with features that could be associated with African or Asian descent. Did this place even have an Africa or an Asia? He recalled how the guards had mused he looked uh... Gatean was it? Maybe that was similar to Asia in any way? Okay and now he had just seen a cleary drunk man dressed as the very stereotype of a wizard. So, trolls, dwarves, wizards... He quickly scanned the ears or all the people on the streets. None of them were pointy, even the beautiful ones. (4) So trolls, dwarves, wizards, but no elves? Did they live on forests only or something? The teen suddenly realised he would have to re-learn common sense all over again. This caused him to sigh.

At the sound of the sigh, the Commander immediatelly opened one eye and glared at him, apparently waiting for a sigh-based attack. Seeing the teen did not look at him (still in a way that made pretty sure he noticed the Commander's reaction), he closed his eye again.

The dwarf seemed kind of fed up with the silence.

"So... what did you do that needs a troll to escort you?"

"That's confidencial Cherry, and don't chitchat with the criminal." the Commander scolded without looking up. The tone of his voice was more annoyed than reproachful, but the dwarf obeyed nonetheless.

Minato took the opportunity to glance at the short passenger without being overly rude, however. The dwarf was... a stereotypical dwarf, really. Beard. Helmet. Chainmail (with the coat of arms of the Watch painted over). He could be casted as Gimly on the Lord of the Rings movie. Or as any other dwarf extra, really. Then again, this dwarf had a pink bow on his beard and some makeup on the visible parts of his eye. Minato briefly wondered if he was gay.

"Sah, permission to chitchat wit' ya." The troll interrupted, raising his hand as a student might to get the attention of the teacher.

The Commander groaned and opened both his eyes. Obviously this was as much sleep as he was going to get.

"What?"

"Why is we both here?" he pointed to himself and the dwarf.

"I said it was confidential, Detritus."

The troll nodded.

"Yes sah, you can be confidential with us."

"That is not how it works, Detritus."

"Sah, its just, he don't look like anythin' who can hurt me..."

The dwarf, Cherry, nodded.

"...and if he can harm Detritus I won't help much. I'm forensics, not street, you know that."

Vimes shrugged.

"Detritus is here because I saw this kid take on someone heavier than me, and after that very _confidential_ thing he did yesterday" he emphasized the word confidential to stop any further questions, "I won't take any chances. Cherry is here because you were the only dwarf on duty today." he closed his eyes again and mumbled "...and there's bloody politicking going on."

The dwarf looked down.

"Oh, right, Koon Valley..."

There were a few seconds of awkward silence which Minato didn't get, probalby because of that thing were his common sense wouldn't tingle in this place.

"We're here." The Commander suddenly opened his eyes and got out of the carriage. And indeed, they seemed to be there, even though he had no way of knowing it since with his eyes closed all the time.

The palace loomed over the city like a relatively tall building looms over slightly smaller buildings. It may not be a great metaphor, but it is accurate. It had the distinctive appearance of a building which was built to be beautiful and regal but was over time switched to be useful and bureaucratic; the pillars were decorated with finely crafted images, all of which fadded over time or were covered in dust and pidgeon droppings, possibly both. The walls were probably a pristine white provided someone took the time to scrap the four layers of dirt. And the steps where in the past probably noblemen walked accompanied by an entire entourage of servants, now clerks walked accompaned by an entire entourage of paperwork.

"Right, you, boy," the commander pointed to Minato "no sudden movements, no whistling, tapping your feet, or letting out any cryptic sentences with ephasis on seemingly random words which could be a signal for an attack such as 'Gee it sure feels HOT in here, I hope someone would COOL DOWN this place NOW.'"

Minato blinked at him.

"How often-"

"Too often. Now be quiet and walk."

* * *

"Ah, so you are the... how do they say, dastardly criminal?"

Minato stared at the man. He was tall and slim, and carried himself as if he thought he knew more than you thought you knew he knew, and who knew you thought he knew it. He was dressed in a black robe. He had greeted them without turning around, while staring though a window that allowed for a breathtaking view of the city (5), holding a black cane with one hand while the other rested behind his back.

"Sir." the Commander saluted, though in a way that made it clear he did not feel like saluting to this man, even though it was his duty. The dwarf and the troll were left in the waiting room. "This boy had a Gonne replica in his possession."

If these were supposed to be shocking news, the man did not show.

"Yes, and I trust you had Captain Carrot deal with it?"

"Sir, yes, sir."

"Very well Commander." the Patrician sat on his desk "Do leave us alone for a minute."

The Commander did not move in any way.

"I trust your hearing is fine, Commander?"

"Sir, he had a Gonne, sir."

"Yes, Commander, past tense."

"I trust I have a right to be present while he explains himself. Sir." The last word was added more as an afterthought

The Patrician nodded.

"Yes, I believed you would feel that way."

They stared at each other for a few seconds, then the Commander saluted and started to stomp his way out of the room. Before leaving, he punched the wall near the door frustrated, causing a bit of plaster to fall. Minato noticed that exact spot he punched had already lost a bunch of plaster from previous punches, and there was the hint of a small hole in it despite being solid stone.

"Do take a seat." The Patrician waved to his desk.

Minato obeyed. The Patrician followed suit.

"And do tell me if you feel the urge to say a sentence out loud with emphasis on seemingly aleatory words. Such as," he raised his voice glancing at the door "the COMMANDER should LEARN that EAVESDROPPING is frowned UPON."

From the other sound of the door came the sound of someone not eavesdropping.

"So," the man in front of him continued without missing a beat "tell me Mr. Arisato, where did you find a Gonne? Or rather," the man took a file at the top of a neatly organized pile in front of him and glanced it, "the 'replica' of a Gonne."

Minato considered his options. Before he had bet on it being okay since it was a replica, but that led to this, so... first he needed to test the waters.

"Does it matter?"

The Patrician put the file down and stared at him a few seconds longer than what was confortable.

"Well, that is an interesting question. If you are asking whether it matters in helping you out of your predictment, then I suppose the answer would be a very solid 'no'. But may I ask you to answer it out of the kindness in your heart?"

Minato shook his head. The Patrician leaned back and stared at the ceiling, steepling his fingers.

"I suspected as much." he closed his eyes for a few seconds then opened them again. "Mr. Arisato", the teen suddenly realised neither the Commander nor himself had said his name to the Patrician, "you have to understand, you present quite a problem to me. Agateans are a rare sight on this city, and rarer still when they claim to be Agatean without actually being so." he stated casually. To Minato's credit, his face remained the usual stoic expression, "then of course, you took down a man on the Shades last night, which as I understand makes you a hero since he was," he took official report and glanced at it "'a bloody bastard and no two ways about it', and I notice Corporal Nobbs was put in charge or writing the reports once again." he put the file down, "Now, while the City is grateful to have one 'bloody bastard' less, and admitting we are the region's prime producer of 'bloody bastards' and one less won't be dearly missed, I can't help but notice there is no register of an Agatean kid dressed as a nobleman or otherwise entering the city walls through any gate, nor lodging reports of a teenager of your description in any house, nor indeed reports of anyone even resembling you or using your name in the records of the city in the last... " he ran his thumb upwards over a huge pile of files " four years. You also never seemed to have seen a troll or a dwarf," alright this guy officially knew more than he had any right to know, Minato briefly wondered if the driver of the cart had been watching his reactions "And of course, you reveal to know what a Gonne is, even if you apparently do not know the importance behind this knowledge. Or rather, you reveal to know what a Gonne is, and _on top of that_ you apparently do not understand the importance behind this knowledge. Now, Mr. Arisato," he leaned over the desk to stare the teen on the eyes, "if I don't look baffled to you, it is because I don't _do_ baffled, but believe me when I say if I did baffled, baffled is the emotion I would be doing at this exact moment. Who are you?"

Minato decided to be honest.

"I can't say."

The Patrician shook his head, leaning back in his chair.

"And I cannot let you walk free until you say it."

"Let me rephrase," the teen began, "I can't say it without sounding crazy."

"Ah, capital!" the Patrician perked up, "We are making progress! To start, what is your crazy explanation for the Gonne?"

"They are common from where I'm from." well, relatively common. Japan certainly had much less than other countries, but still not so few as to cause this reaction upon finding a copy.

The Patrician very nearly did baffled. He stared at the teen waiting for further explaining, but found none. He got up and walked to the window. "You see, Mr. Arisato, it is impossible for Gonnes to be common from where you are from, because there was exactly only one Gonne ever fabricated. And I had it be destroyed."

"Oh." There wasn't much else Minato could add.

"Well put." the Patrician turned back to face him again "I almost dread asking what is the crazy explanation to how did you get into the city."

The teen thought for a while trying to think of a way to explain it without, well, revealing to be from another reality. He had the nagging feeling that would not go well. His mind suddenly went back to the drunk man dressed as a wizard.

"...magic?" he asked tentatively.

"Hmm. A surprisingly mundane answer. We do not have laws against unauthorized magic in here, however that is mostly because anyone who has the power to do unauthorized magic is authorized to do magic. How many brothers you have?"

Minato blinked at the non-sequitur.

"I'm an only child."

"Really? Any uncles?"

"No."

"Indeed? My, my, it is a truly amazing magic you did then, since all wizards get their powers from being the eighth son of an eighth son."

"Oh."

"Once again, very eloquent. I must say, Mr. Arisato, I am inclined to believe your words if only because they are such flimsy lies nobody would have bothered to craft them at all. I suppose I better brace myself for the last question. Where, Mr. Arisato, are you really from?"

Nah... nah, he still couldn't say he was from another reality.

"I'm Agatean."

The Patrician watched his eyes, then sighed.

"Very well, if that is how you are going to play this, your hanging is to be scheduled for tomorrow morning."He sat down and started to write on a few files. After a few seconds, he looked back up. "Do feel free to attempt running away or using whatever only child magic you did to get on the city in the first place. But if you want to stay, you get a free last meal."

He resumed signing the files, then looked back up.

"Good goodness, you are still here?"

Minato was doing baffled, albeit internally, while making full use of his mask.

"You said I will be hanged..."

"Yes." the Patrician said without look up.

"...and expect me to not do anything about it?''

"It seems to be working so far." Again, without looking up

"...I could kill you."

The Patrician finnaly looked up at him.

"Yes, you could."

He looked back down.

So okay, this man was apparently very confident on the fact Minato had no weapons and was handcuffed, but even so he should be aware cornering a man this was without having someone else in the room is a bad idea? I mean how did this man live this long with- oh

Minato glanced to a corner of the room, which was covered in shadows despite all the laws of physics would want to to believe. He could barely see the outline of a man dressed in sharp black with his hands behind his back, in the position security guards everywhere in the multiverse choose to stand on.

So, okay, they weren't alone in the room, and the Patrician was pretty confident in this secret service of his. Of course, the teen still had a hidden card on his sleeve. Or rather, a glowing spinning card floating on his hand. Orpheus could likely burst his way out of the room without a problem... But then what?

He figured killing the Patrician would just make him have to kill all the guardsmen in the city as well, and, well, Minato was not keen on the idea of harming innocent people (6). And the teen was aware he needed to find new social links that worked in this reality. Being a fugitive mass murderer would likely make people reluctant to get to know him.

Still, he couldn't just answer the question and outright say he was from another world. People take offense to this kind of thing.

Only... a idea formed, if this man knew as much about every detail of the city as he liked to pretend to know...

"...have there been cases of people becoming catatonic overnight?"

The Patrician stopped on his tracks halfway signing a document. The teen now had his full attention.

"Alonso Vertigo from the Assassin's Guild, Alicesea Fruityloop, a housewife, Dweebil Ironforger, a clacksman, and Gildenon Bulkkhead, from the Drunksmen Guild (7)." he said promptly "Other than Ironforger and Bulkkhead, none of them had passable reasons to suffer a mental breakdown. There have also been similar reported from cases in Genoa and Klatch."

Minato looked at the Patrician's eyes.

"I know what is making this."

The Patrician leaned back in the chair and crossed his legs, putting down his quill.

"Is that a threat?"

Minato shook his head.

"I want to stop it."

The Patrician tapped his fingers one against the other.

"And why haven't you yet?"

Minato shrugged.

"The source is hidden."

The Patrician seemed thoughtful for a while.

"So, Mr. Arisato, you appear out of nowhere, without any records to your name, coming from a place you won't talk about, speaking crazed and indeed impossible things about yourself, holding a piece of forbidden technology that few people even know exist, lacking the common knowledge of how anything works around yourself, yet claiming to have knowledge of a phenomena that wasn't made public, and say you are aware of the nature of its source, which has eluded Ankh-Morpork's greatestest minds and stop its spread?"

Minato shrugged.

"Basically."

The Patrician nodded. This looked like a Story, and he wasn't going to argue with it. He knew what happened to tyrants rulers of a city who opposed the main character of a Story. That doesn't mean he trusted it yet.

"If that is indeed true, we need to find you a place where I can keep an eye on your every movement, a background story would give you a reasonable cover, where people wouldn't ask you many questions about your personal life, and where you have the means to investigate. Which is why," he turned to face the door "I'm making you a Watchman."

The door burst open.

"YOU WHAT" the Commander yelled from the door with his hands on the handle, while Detritus the troll and Cherry the dwarf fell to the ground having obviously been pressing their ears against the wood.

The scene froze in grey tint.

_I am thou... and thou art I... Thou shalt have our blessing when thou chooseth to create Personas of the Fool Arcana_

* * *

1 'cool' would be another. In both the positive and negative meanings.

2 The same way people sitting close to someone in a wheelchair will do their best not to stare at the legs.

3 they didn't seem to use steam. Or be punks.

4 by beautiful we mean three of them. Minato was quickly learning that this city had a large diversity of people who all nonetheless managed to be mostly ugly.

5 almost any window with a sight of the city was breathtaking. It was the smell.

6 For any value of innocent.

7 It's like the Alcoholic Anonymous, only none of them want to quit.

* * *

**Omake**

"...you appear out of nowhere, without any records to your name, coming from a place you won't talk about, speaking crazed and indeed impossible things about yourself, holding a piece of forbidden technology that few people even know exist, lacking the common knowledge of how anything works around yourself, yet claiming to have knowledge of a phenomena that wasn't made public, and say you are aware of the nature of its source, which has eluded Ankh-Morpork's greatestest minds and stop its spread?"

The man with a spiky hair and trenchcoat shifted uneasily in his chair, while Commander Vimes tried to use his sword as a lever to open the door of the blue box in the background being held by Detritus, without success.

"You know, it does sound ridiculous when you put it that way."

* * *

**A/N**

devout heretic, I just felt that the shadow was starting to get redundant after a while. I mean, there are so many ways I can write "I am manipulative" without it becoming 'yeah we get it, you are manipulative, get on with the show already'. And that is after I deleted 6 or more extra paragraphs where the shadow explained just how manipulative he was. And, well, I guess it was just very different from how I first imagined it. In my first draft, Minato didn't have strings, just a mask which hypnotized people, and I was going to focus much more on the fact he was a womanizer (the game does allow you to have 6 girlfriends at once, after all). But then I re-read it and noticed it was far too smutty (don't ask, let's just say shadow Minato was into bdsm) and didn't really convey what I wanted to say. I also wanted to put the Death Arcana there somewhere but since it was the only Arcana he didn't manipulate, I couldn't think of a way to make it relevant. Thanks for the positive review, though, I appreciate it.

DemonRaily, thanks for the positive review once again.


	10. Chapter 10

A strange antique shop selling mysterious trinkets and totally-not-magic-books-wink-wink, which appears out of nowhere and disappears the following day, when someone came to ask for a refund or complain that they should have been more specific about what happens when you feed _them_ after midnight. Put a warning label on it! Typically, none of the neighbors will claim to have ever heard of the shop, which makes you think they may have been on the scheme.

Shops like these were part of many stories, and in many times the start of them. If they sell books which take you on a journey of self-discovery or a board game which makes boys grow hair in places only Nobby Nobbs has hair, its mostly a question of taste. Ankh-Morpork itself had once been at the mercy of a cursed guitar bought in one such shop, and which had caused Death quite a skullache, as it would not allow the musician playing it to ever die.

It may seem strange, then, that Death was searching for the store right now. For any normal person, that would mean years of cutting journal clippings from tabloids of the kind that claim a man had married a magical creature of some sort and going mad trying to find a pattern, all the while the things which he has fed after midnight keep doing slapstick comedy routines around the house. But Death had the advantage of being everywhere at once, so all he needed was to do the metaphysical equivalent of turning your head around(1).

He found it floating in space a few lightyears east from Ankh-Morpork.

And then he was inside it, as if he had never been anywhere else.

Even though Death had never actually walked through the door to get inside, the bell above it rung to announce there was a costumer by itself.

From the door behind the balcony there was an annoyed grunt, then it opened to reveal a cranky old lady with a perpetual frown and a pair of glasses that, though not being shades, managed to conceal her eyes somehow. She took one look at Death and seemed unimpressed.

"We're closed." She snorted. It made sense; the neighborhood around here wouldn't buy much.

I AM ATTEMPTING TO CREATE A STORY

The lady adjusted the glasses then grumbled some more.

"Well we don't do charity here."

Death nodded.

JUST A SECOND

* * *

There was a temple dedicated to the Crocodile God, Offler, in the middle of a jungle somewhere in the Disk, where only a handful of priests lived. In its middle there was a giant statue, with one eye carved out of a giant diamond, while the other one currently sported giant eye patch made out of bed sheets ever since a thief had infiltrated the temple and stole the God's left eye. The priests did the best they could and re-wrote the holy scriptures to detail how Offler had lost one eye while battling against the Grimmimidums, which sounded like an ancient enough name that nobody would question it.

Arrumba Mumu, the higher ranking priest, was currently walking the path in front of the statue while drinking a mug of coffee and reading a newspaper (2). As such, he completely failed to notice the figure shrouded in black standing over Offler's snout and using a scythe as a lever to pop out the other diamond eye he had.

* * *

In Cori Celesti, the Gods watching the game, including the newcomer, all turned their heads when they heard an "Ah! Sonuva-".

The God Offler was holding his non-eyepatched eye, which now was just a hollow eyesocket. He could still see, since Gods aren't limited by pesky things like senses, but the priests would soon be busy at work rewriting a few texts to make up for this new change.

* * *

The store bell rang again, a mere instant after he had disappeared, holding a diamond the size of a small child.

I TRUST THIS IS ENOUGH TO COVER TRAVEL EXPENSES

He put the diamond on the counter. The vendor took a thicker pair of glasses and switched it with her current one so fast Death couldn't get a glimpse of her eyes. But of course, he already knew what they looked like, so there is no loss there.

"Its cursed." She put bluntly.

Death looked at it, then tapped the top of the diamond with the tip of the blade of his scythe, and slowly brought it up.

The scythe pulled out a small dark shadow made **o**uT oFf i_a_l**AlLwi****LL****D****_I_****EKkI****_lL_**_MU__Rd__ER__filthyTH_iEiVES**_yoURS_****_EED_**_sh_ALLw**_iTH_****ERaND****_D_****_iE_****_D_**_I__E__**DIeDIE**_

Death cut the thing with his scythe.

IT ISN'T ANYMORE

* * *

Sergeant Colon was currently on patrol through the streets of Ankh Morpork. More specifically, he was patrolling the safest areas of the commercial district on the basis that the unsafe areas were a lost cause already, so why risk going there? Besides here and there he could taste a few free samples from the food vendors who knew to always reserve some extras for good ole Fred Colon, especially if good ole Fred Colon remembered not to bring that imp of a friend he had this time around.

He walked past an empty lot, then a second later there was absolutely nothing wrong or different all. He quickly spun around and there was, now, a store there, and it wasn't wrong or different. He knew that store, it had always been there, every day he could remember patrolling these streets, it was normal and not wrong. Nobody around him looked at it twice, because it was such an old and familiar sight and normal. It was normal. The thought was being hammered in his head, the more he stared at it. _THIS_ store _IS NORMAL_. _STOP THINKING ABOUT IT._

"Aww crud." He muttered, before hastly turning around and doing a retreat. "Not again."

* * *

Lord Vetinari, the Patrician, was currently filling the paper works that would ensure Minato would be normal and not wrong as well, provided everybody stopped thinking about it. The teen had left with the Commander and the guards a few minutes ago, after Vetinari and the Commander positively did not have an argument at all.

The figure that had been hiding in the shadows who Minato had spotted stepped out to the light. It wasn't… nearly as menacing on the sunlight. In fact it looked like a clerk. Which he was. The trick, however, is knowing that most clerks employed by the palace also double up as high ranking members of the Assassin's Guild.

The clerk didn't say anything, because he had learned long ago not to question the Patrician. Not because the man was vindictive or disliked being questioned, but because there was no point.

That is why Vetinari was the first to speak.

"Yes, Drumknott?"

"You think that was a wise decision, sir?"

"Tell me Drumknott, what did you think about his story?"

"He spotted me, sir. He looks at the shadows."

_"People look but don't see..." _the memory came to Vetinari, from so many years ago _"But I think Keel would have seen me... He stares at the shadows." _Ha. What would Vimes say about that? Probably nothing, but it would bother him.

"Did you do that trick where you take out your knife and let it gleam in the dark against all odds?"

"No sir, he didn't seem like he needed to be threatened."

"Indeed?" the Patrician looked up, "And why so, Drumknott?"

The clerk would have shrugged, but that was unprofessional, so he didn't.

"He didn't look dangerous."

"Ah yes, I agree." The Patrician went back to writing the paperwork. "He was pretty good and not looking dangerous."

They were now back at the Watch house. The travel back had been full of an awkward and tense silence where Minato did his best to stare out of the window, Cheery stared worriedly at the Commander, and the Commander glared at the teen as if it was all his fault. Detritus the troll stared vacantly at nothing.

The Commander was on the process of explaining the watchmen around the person they had arrested before was now a watchman himself. Or at least, he passing this torch around. It went something like this;

"Carrot, he's a guard now, blame Vetinari, spread the word around, I'm going home before I pop a vessel." And, as he was leaving, not quite under his breath, he added "…and if the kid ever as much as dreams of having another Gonne, you know what to do."(3) Before he slammed the door.

True enough, Minato thought the Commander seemed like a man who hadn't slept properly in the past week. Or year.

That left Captain Carrot with the task of announcing the arrival of a the new recruit to everyone, which honestly went much better than Minato had expected. Apparently, despite Commander Vimes's protests, being forced to accept new recruits against his will was something that happened once every month, thought very few times he had a real motive to distrust them like he did with the teen.

Minato was quickly introduced to more people than he could be bothered to remember the name of, many of whom showed the same amount of interest on him in return, with barely nodding when Carrot said he was the new guy, or even not looking up at all and mumbling something over piles of paperwork. The exceptions of the rule were Cheery the Dwarf, who was apparently both the head of, and the only member in, the forensics team, as well as the Commander's secretary, since he refused to hire someone to fill the spot, Detritus the Troll, who was apparently one of the smartest trolls in the city, capable of counting up to _past four_, even!(6) Then there was Sargeant Colon and Corporal 'Nobby' Nobbs, the respectively fat one and… more than merely 'ugly' one who watched over him in the prison. Minato noticed Colon was a little pale and muttering to himself, but, being Minato, didn't comment.

"And this is Angua."

Minato looked down to see a huge white wolf staring up at him, with a collar that held a police badge. It reminded him quite a lot of Koromaru, even though this wolf was about twice the shiba inu's size. The thing that made them alike is that Minato could bet this one would be able to have a Persona as well. Most animals lack the intelligence to have a sense of 'self', acting purely on instinct. Koromaru and Angua both seemed to be smart enough to know what concepts like 'myself' and 'thyself' are. He crouched absentmindedly to try and pet the animal, who didn't resist or bark.

"He's calm." The teen commented. The wolf barked as if to correct him.

"She's a she." Carrot said automatically.

Minato could swear he heard Nobby comment "You would know." From the other side of the room, but the Captain either didn't hear the comment or decided to ignore it. After another round of presenting Minato with some more people he didn't think would be important on his life (and upon thinking this he couldn't help but picture his shadow going 'See? See?' from inside him), Carrot turned back to face him, pointing at a door to their right with his thumb.

"...and I think Sally on the basement with Igor."

Wait what.

"You know Igor?" The teen asked in a reflex.

Carrot looked at him blankly. Then realization dawned.

"Oooh, no, I don't mean she's with someone named Igor, I mean she's with _an _Igor."

* * *

1 Only to 13 different sides at once

2 He subscribed to the idea that just because you were in the middle of a jungle cut from the rest of the world, you didn't have to be cut out from the rest of the world. The newspapers arrived 3 months late, but at least the crossword puzzles didn't have an expiration date.

3 Captain Carrot didn't, actually. He was a watchman who learned to do things by the book (4) and the book never mentioned anything about people dreaming of prohibited weapons. It did mention 567 things that constituted a 'threat to a watchman' (5) however, and he knew what to if Minato presented himself as one.

4 Literally so, pardon the pun, he had been the owner of one of the only copies detailing all the things expected from Ankh-Morpork's Finest, and had all 4000 pages memorized on his head.

5 It started with "1 – looking at me at a funny way, pal." And ended with "567 – Was totally asking for it." The pages on 'police brutality' listed 3 things, one of which is about hiding the bodies. It should be noted that the book was written by watchmen during a dictatorship, was hundreds of years old, and Commander Vimes had personally prohibited anyone but Carrot from reading it because at least the ginger had common sense.

6 He usually didn't though, because it caused his head to hurt. It should be noted trolls were just dumb during the summer; the snowy winter makes their brain unable to overheat and they become thinking powerhouses. It should be noted there was a troll smarter than Detritus. A troll so smart, he could count to numbers so high humans had yet to invent a name for them. But nobody knew where he was.

* * *

**A/N**

I just noticed I have been misspelling Cheery's name all the time up until now. It is _read_ as Cherry, but _spelled_ as Cheery, as in 'feeling happy', referencing names like "Grumpy" and "Sleepy" of the 7 Dwarves. Mr. Pratchett, I _failed you_, and my only option now is to disembowel myself honorably.

Also I can't help but feel Minato is far too silent in this one. But what can I do, he's stoic. I can't wait until I can start adding propper Social Links so that I can force him to open his goddamned mouth

DemonRaily It isn't really that they know they are in a story, it is just that it is heavily implied on the Disc that stories happen all the time because of the magical element Narrativium, which holds reality together, and gives the stories a force of their own. It's like, you can change the stories, or break the stories, but they fight back to stay on course, and it takes magic, intelligence or lots of willpower to break free from one, so the best bet is to play along and attempt to become a minor character, so that the story doesn't try to manipulate you too much. One Discworld book called Witches Abroad was all about this; in it a witch who has gone mad starts creating fairytale stories left and right because she knows those stories always end with "happily ever after"... but it did so against people's free will. So the princess who kissed a frog and it turned into a prince, for example, was happy ever after, but only because the story would not allow her to believe she was unhappy, even though she would be. This is the most extreme case, though, stories in the Disc rarely ever become powerful enough to brainwash people unless there is massive ammounts of magic backing it up, but they still keep nudging people into following it. Other characters also try to make stories so that they have better chances at something. In "Guards! Guards!", for example, Colon, Nobby, and Carrot, all become aware that whenever a story says that "it was a chance of one in a million", it always works, because its a story. So, they figured when they were about to lose a battle with odds of, say, 1 to 900000, they should start giving handicaps to the opponents (like throwing away weapons and fighting with their eyes closed) to make it so that the odds of them winning was exactly 1 on a million. It didn't work, but it was heavily implied it didn't work because they went a few units above a million so the odds became 1 on a million and four, or something.

Also, I cannot recommend this book series enough. I mean just look at me gushing, I could go on and on and on and on about this series.


	11. Chapter 11

As it turns out, 'an Igor' was a man named Igor. Maybe. Looking at it, Minato was unsure if he was male. He would only bet 50/50 it had ever been human.

The basement was like every mad scientist laboratory from fiction at once. There were liquids bubbling on colored jars on the shelves, and the jars that didn't contain colored bubbling liquid contained stuff that made him wish they were instead colored bubbling liquid. One of them had an eyeball. He was almost pretty sure it was following him around the room. There was a table that was just long enough for someone to lie in, and which just so coincidently had leather straps at the exact point an adult's arms and legs would be at, if they were to lie in it. They also had stains that the teen would rather not think about, but that was okay, because his brain all but shut down once he saw the man on the center of the room.

The face was a complete mess of stitches haphazardly holding together patches of skin that, Minato could clearly see despite the poor lighting around the room, were from completely different skin tones. And it seemed bits of him, like the ears, were also stitched together. One of them was huge and had some hair coming out, the other small and, dare he say? Girlish. Even his eyes were different one from the other, for God's sake, one green and one brown, and with differing pupil sizes. His hair was composed of various patches of differently colored and textured kinds of hair, from straight blonde to curly black. It was clear that while he, Minato, incorporated bits of various people on himself in the form of social links, Igor incorporated bits of various people on himself the old fashioned way. The parts of his being that weren't horribly, horribly visible were covered under a medical coat. Which had blood in it.

There was some awkward silence while the teen flinched and just stared at the man, vaguely aware Carrot had introduced them. After a few seconds Carrot cleared his throat, which was a good thing because otherwise Igor would have done it and that was a sound Minato wouldn't want to imagine.

And to Minato's credit, he managed to hide most of his… well, disgust. It was like staring at the result of several trainwrecks after an unlicensed doctor with ADHD tried his best with whatever they collected of the passengers in a bucket.

"Nice-to-meet-you." The teen said a bit mechanically, raising his hand, which he immediately regretted because the man raised two hands to shake his, and both were on the end of the same arm, and neither had the number of fingers he was sure they should have. One had seven.

"Ah, so you are the new guard, thir." Minato couldn't hide the shiver, but the man smiled. It showed a few stitches under his lips. "Firthth time theeing an Igor, is it?" even the man's lisp was inconsistent. "I'th fine, we get it all the time."

"Uh… sorry." The teen muttered.

"Minato here's from the Jade Empire." Carrot stepped in, trying to make stuff less awkward, "I understand they don't have Igors there."

"Ah yeth, we tried to migrate there once, but were chathed out with thtickth and thtoneth. Also fireth and pitchforkth." Minato felt kind of bad about that story but at the same time could understand why. He wasn't sure what he would do if he saw a bunch of Igors coming out of nowhere. Also, a pool of spit was starting to form on the ground after the he had said 'sticks and stones'.

"You'll get over it once he starts saving your life once or twice." There was a higher pitched voice from Minato's left, and just now he noticed Igor has surprised him so much, he hadn't seen the other person in the room.

_Oh hey eye bleach I needed that,_ Minato could hear his shadow inside him, and appropriately thought back _shut up._ But yeah, he knew, true thoughts.

This girl was about his age, maybe younger even, and looked… uh… 'hot' wasn't the right word, nor was 'beautiful', and definitely not 'cute'. Maybe it was just the effect of seeing her after seeing Igor, but she simply looked like someone who was very, very attractive, without the attractiveness taking any discernible shape or form. She was pale, like, _very_ pale, but it managed to look give her sort of a mysterious aura. Her standard Watch uniform looked good on her despite the fact, from what Minato had seen, that the uniform didn't look good on absolutely anybody. The light of the room shone on her hair in a perfect way, despite the fact there was no light source in the room. Her short black hair waved on the wind, even though they were on the damned basement and there was no damn wind. She was wearing a black cloak over her uniform, held by a black ribbon, but it clung to her figure like-

_Hey use the strings on her_. Minato blinked. Or didn't. He couldn't close his eyes for some reason, but he didn't notice. _No what come on man you know you want to no we're done with that no more ego boosting harems_ That was the one decision he had decided to change after his Persona recovery experience._ But you want to yes fine I do but even so that's final wuss quiet. _This entire conversation took the time of a thought, so nobody gave him any funny looks for staying there looking at the distance. They gave him funny looks for the ten seconds he stood there eyeing the girl up and down prior to the mental conversation, thought she didn't seem to mind in the slightest.

Carrot cleared his throat again, and Minato saw, with the corner of his eye because he was still unable to look away from her figure, him give the woman an annoyed look.

"Don't do that with the new guy." He scolded. She smiled in a magnificent way.

"You're the boss."

And suddenly she was… less attractive. Still good looking, sure, but nothing Minato would be speechless about and just _stare_ like that. Oh lords he just now realized he had been staring. He would have blushed if he hadn't spent most of his last year developing an amazing skill in not showing any emotion he didn't want to show.

"Sorry about that, I couldn't resist." She held her hand up. "Call me Sally."

Minato held her hand.

"Gah..." He shook his head and tried again. "Minato."

She smiled at him, showing her perfect teeth.

"How did you do that?" Minato noticed, surprised, that the question had not come from himself, but from her.

"Do what?"

"This." She pointed to his face, which was carefully blank. "Not show anything when I did the thing." She imitated his blank expression to make a point. "Not to brag but usually people drool. Especially men your age."

"Oh. Practice."

He smile sweetened.

"Practice with the blank face, or practice with girls?"

"…yes."

"Ha!" she smiled now. Not the previous alluring, secretive smile of someone trying to be sexy, but the smile of someone who was honestly having fun. She slapped his back. "I like you already kid! Try not to die on your first trip to the Shades."

"He already did that." Carrot commented.

"Huh?" She looked at him, then at Minato, then at him, then at Minato. "Wait, _you're_ the guy who the Commander found covered in blood above the gang of serial killers and had to be knocked out?"

Minato blinked.

"I am?"

"The way I heard it, thir, he took down a troll uthing his bare fingerth." Igor commented from the other side of the room. He had lost interest in the conversation a while ago and didn't want to make Minato much more uncomfortable, so he started cataloguing all the bubbling things he had growing on jars, some of which waved to him as he walked past. It was hard life, being an Igor.

Carrot shook his head,

"I'm honestly surprised you didn't already have a swordfight with the Commander over the dead body of the Patrician." Minato just stared at him. "Ankh-Morpork rumors," the ginger explained, "by now everyone in the city knows you exist, but most people will be sure you are a dwarf holding a sword made of diamond who killed the Commander on a fistfight."

The teen considered this.

"If I have a diamond sword, why would I fistfight?"

"Because you are an honorable dwarf fighter who goes from city to city delivering justice."

"…too specific." Minato commented.

The Captain nodded.

"Some people were here while the Patrician talked to you, demanding to see the dwarf who killed the Commander."

He processed the information further.

"If I'm honorable and just… why would I kill the Commander?"

Carrot's expression darkened a little, and Sally shrugged.

"Commander Vimes is the head of the Watch, and is the second most influential man in the city. But, he wasn't born a nobleman."

"…so?"

"So, there are few things which unite humble servants and noblemen more than the distrust they share for someone who raised in life."

The teen put two and two together, and stared at Carrot.

"And, those people who wanted to talk to me-"

"The dwarf." Sally added helpfully, Minato glanced at her but didn't comment.

"What did they want?"

"Well they didn't look like an angry mob, if that's what you are asking.(2) I think one of them demanded we release you."

"...that's not an option is it?"

"We can't release you. You're not under arrest."

"I slept in a cell."

"Right now you aren't in it."

"…what happens if I walk away?"

"Well, _then_ we have to arrest you."

"Oh."

"But only because we don't want the Patrician's men to get to you first, if he hears you walked away." Carrot's smile deepened. "We wouldn't want that on our conscience."

* * *

"You know Minato, it is still your first day here, so I'm letting this slip."

The teen looked at Carrot. They had left Sally and Igor back to their thing. The teen vaguely understood the… well, the Igor, whatever he was, was apparently the watch's medical staff. He just hoped never, ever to get sick. He didn't know what Sally did, but… well, she did wear a black cloak and was very pale. Maybe she was whatever this place's equivalent of a goth is, liking depressing dark places and whatnot.

"What?"

"That. What you are doing now."

What, the blank face thing again? Can everyone here see through it? He went through his entire high school first year without anyone commenting, what gives?

"Sorry, I kind of just am this way." It was true, sort of. Minato's default expression always seemed a little dead, _whenever I am not acting to get people to like me oh will you shut up I accepted you yeah sure so now you at least aren't ignoring me anymore can I still hate you sure but you're hating yourself I'm fine with that I know_ but fact is, he also consciously made it blank quite often. It was useful, not to show emotions before you know what emotion people are expecting. You can throw them off guard.

"What?" It was Carrot's turn to be confused. Then he understood, "Oh, no, not the lack of expression, I mean the way you are talking."

"Talking?"

"Tell me, who am I?"

"…Carrot?"

"Close, but no, and you are lucky I got to you before you did this to the Commander. I am _Captain_ Carrot."

"...and?"

"And, _sir._"

Ah, of course, hierarchy. He was a soldier now. Sort of.

"Sir."

"Good, you are a fast learner." They resumed walking, and honestly Minato was just following Carrot at this point because he didn't know what was expected of him, so he would follow someone who knew what people expected of them until someone yelled for him, or at him, what he was supposed to do.

So, 'sir'. Meh. He came from Japan. Adding honorifics to the end of a sentence was a second nature. Then again,

"…Sally didn't add it when she talked to you. Sir."

"_Captain _Sally did not need address me like that."

Minato stopped on his tracks and looked to see if Carrot was pulling his leg, but the Captain seemed not to be a jokester. She was _younger_ than he was. Well, fine, maybe same age, tops. Certainly not older. How did she rise ranks so fast?

"So, you prefer Day Watch or Night Watch?"

"Huh? Sir?"

"For your beats, you prefer Day Watch or Night Watch." They had arrived to some desk, where Carrot promptly say down and started filling a document, probably his recruitment papers. The teen considered this. Shadows appeared at midnight, so it stood to reason he needed nighttimes free to find… Tartarus? Maybe? He hadn't really thought about that, but the Shadows must be leaking out of somewhere. There ought to be an equivalent to the tower around here. Of course, he would be tired working all day and not sleeping all night, but Tartarus last year did wonders with his ability of holding back drowsiness.

"Day watch. Sir."

"Shame to hear you hear that, because everyone starts at the Night Watch." (3) The Captain stamped a moon symbol on the paper.

Minato's eyes twitched.

"Then why did you ask. Sir?"

"It is protocol to ask that of all new personnel. Speaking about protocol questions," he looked at the paper to read "'Are you a member of a subversive terrorist group looking to overthrow the current government?'"

"…how many people answer 'yes' to that?"

"You would be surprised."

"Zero?"

"So maybe you would not be surprised. And you forgot the 'sir'."

Minato let out a long sigh, which made Carrot surprised, as well as some of the watchmen walking nearby. Not even the kid's stoic nature could resist the overwhelming powers of convoluted bureaucracy.

"No, sir, I am not part of a terrorist organization looking to overthrow the government."

Carrot nodded, next question.

"'Really'?"

Minato had never face palmed. It was a thing he didn't do. It wasn't _him_. And despite that, he right arm twitched on that moment.

"Yes. Really. Sir."

"Alright, all that is left is for you to take the oath."

Minato nodded. And for some reason, he noticed, a group of guards stopped to watch the scene. Carrot took a deep breath, and then, putting a hand over his chest, clearly proclaimed;

"I comma square bracket recruit's name square bracket comma do solemnly swear by square bracket recruit's deity of choice square bracket to uphold the Laws and Ordinances of the City of Ankh-Morpork comma serve the public truƒt comma and defend the ƒubjects of his ƒtroke her bracket delete whichever is inappropriate bracket Majeƒty bracket name of reigning monarch bracket without fear comma favour comma or thought of perƒonal ƒafety semi-colon to purƒue evildoers and protect the innocent comma comma laying down my life if neceƒsary in the cauƒe of said duty comma so help me bracket aforeƒaid deity bracket full stop Gods Save the King stroke Queen bracket delete whichever is inappropriate bracket full stop."

Minato looked at him. Carrot's expression didn't show any emotion other the pride and a defiant look for anyone to make fun of the oath.

"Your turn."

The other guards were snickering and Minato half realized they expected him to refuse, claiming it was ridiculous and start some trouble for them to watch. And hell he wanted to, because it was ridiculous. But Carrot had said this ridiculous thing with certainty and emotion. The oath was important to him, for some reason.

Well, what is the point of having an ability if you don't use it? Carrot knew what he wanted to hear, _and I always knew how to say to people what they want to hear did I not._

He put the mask.

Not only speak what they want you to speak, be what they want you to be; the Captain was proud of the oath, and what he wanted is for new recruits to be proud of the oath. He didn't expect any of them to, because it was outdated and misspelled and everyone snickered when hearing it the first time, but 'expect' and 'want' are two different things.

_Eyes more focused_. Minato concentrated. _Slight shivering. Chest inflating. Chin jutting out a bit too much_. The Captain didn't want just a young man saying the words, he wanted a young man taken back by the emotion of joining the Watch, the emotion of being able to say that what so many great watchmen said before himself, a young man who would do his best despite his limitations. And Minato was now going to be that person. He was, in short, transforming into how he expected Carrot had been back when he joined the Watch.(4)

And yet, despite it all… he still looked like he had before. Nobody looking would say the teen had _changed_. His mask glided gently over the oceans of conscious understanding, but crash landed in the depths of the mind, leaking metaphorical fuel and starting a forest fire that couldn't be ignored. Looking at him you would still see the blank, almost bored, expression, and his voice was still level and monotone. Only, it was level and monotone and bored while somehow, against all odds, still being full of emotions.

He did a salute, a perfect salute, a textbook salute, the kind you see in 'how to' manuals, but no guard ever actually does. Then he took a deep breath, and then said with a clear, resounding, if still tinted with some boredom, tone of voice;

"I comma square bracket recruit's name square bracket comma do solemnly swear by square bracket recruit's deity of choice square bracket to uphold the Laws and Ordinances of the City of Ankh-Morpork comma serve the public trust comma and defend the subjects of his stroke her bracket delete whichever is inappropriate bracket Majesty bracket name of reigning monarch bracket without fear comma favour comma or thought of personal safety semi-colon to pursue evildoers and protect the innocent comma comma laying down my life if necessary in the cause of said duty comma so help me bracket aforesaid deity bracket full stop Gods Save the King stroke Queen bracket delete whichever is inappropriate bracket full stop."

Nailed it. Oh wait, almost.

"Sir!" He saluted again.

There was silence. Minato considered forcing a single tear fall down his cheek, but decided that would be too much.

The Captain was stared at him surprised for a few seconds, then he stood, knocking back the chair, and saluted in a way that matched the teen's own in terms of ridiculous exaggeration. The rest of the room caught the movement and saluted as well, because if a commanding officer salutes, like hell you won't salute as well.

The scene held for a few seconds, until Carrot relaxed with a smile.

"Well done." He raised a hand, which Minato shook "Welcome to the Ankh-Morpork Night Watch."

_I am thou... and thou art I... Thou shalt have our blessing when thou chooseth to create Personas of the Strenght Arcana_

Minato allowed a true smile. _I still got it._

* * *

1 And either he does, or he will learn to have less weight to pull.

2 By Ankh-Morpork standards, which means they barely threw stones.

3 Not really, but Carrot wouldn't say the truer words of "anyone whose life Commander Vimes wishes to turn into living hell starts at the Night Watch". He knew the Vimes well enough to understand if he has marked Day Watch, the papers would mysteriously disappear and mysteriously reappear in form of shreds in the mysterious depts. Of the Commander's garbage bin.

4 And he was doing a perfect job, give or take 6 extra inches to his height and about five times his current muscle mass.

* * *

**A/N**

I am not making Minato bipolar, but I thought it would be a nice touch to have his unfiltered shadow thoughts appear from time to time. Also I'm planning something for that when he meets the Priestess Arcana, who is a character I chose who has similar thoughts.

Also, I've got good news and bad news. The good news is that I got a job. As a translator! It's like being an astronaut, only less exciting, you get paid less, and don't get famous or go to space. It so happens that the good news is also the same news as the bad news, because now I have much less time to write. If everything goes as planned, I will still have Fridays and Sundays free (Saturdays I have some classes), but I still won't be able to upload on the fairly quick (if I do say so myself) speed I had up until now.

On a final note, some people might think Sally is out of character. That is mostly because she might in fact really be out of character, though I did not intend so when I started writing her. I simply realized after the first few sentences coming out of her mouth that I just can't remember much about her character at all, seeing as I haven't read Thud! in three years. I do kind of remember feeling she was easygoing and flirty, so for now I'll be going with that until I can get around rereading the book and remembering what she was really like.


	12. Chapter 12

"You never did answer my question."

"Sir?"

It was still daytime, shortly after lunchtime in fact, and the now officially-a-watchman Minato was now following Captain Carrot through the cities to memorize what would be his beat. To the Captain's right, Angua followed, sometimes sniffing the ground or most likely keeping her nose as closed as possible because this was still Ankh-Morpork.

"When I asked where you are staying. Back when we first met."

"Oh." That _was_ a good question, Minato suddenly realized. He had so far slept a few hours after being arrested, but somehow he doubted the Watch would lend him a cell from then on.

"I couldn't say sir."

Both Carrot and Angua turned their heads to face him.

"Couldn't or wouldn't?"

"Couldn't, sir. I have no idea myself. Are there any bridges in the city, sir?" Minato said, glancing at the river.

"Yes, and although you can sleep under them, you would eventually sink after a few hours."

Minato nodded. This river contained the most foul water he ever laid his eyes on, and he was quite certain he had seen a few people cross it on foot, since the texture of the liquid was more akin to the texture of a pudding. The teen had also noticed Angua held her breath every time the beat took them anywhere near the thing, and he couldn't blame her given the smell was flaring up his normal, human nose, and he could only wonder what it did to a dog's.

"Do you have money?"

"Other than uh… Agatean money, no sir."

"And you don't have Agatean money either." Carrot said flatly.

Well was that the worst kept secret this city ever had or what.

"You got me sir, I am not Agatean."

Carrot just nodded and waved a hand dismissively.

"If you want an advice, you will now be working among coppers, so avoid telling lies."

"…I couldn't tell people where I'm from, sir."

"Couldn't or wouldn't?"

"…wouldn't."

There was some silence.

"Then don't. But that doesn't mean lying either."

Minato glanced sideways to look inquisitively at the Captain.

"Everyone in the Watch has something from their past they would rather not tell, and trust me when I say they will respect it if you politely imply that it's not their business."

"…everyone, sir?" Carrot was trying to imagine what sort of secretive past Carrot could have. Honestly, despite the fact he didn't laugh much or joke a lot, the Captain seemed... well, good. It was hard to imagine the tall ginger hurting a fly, unless it was a fly that was holding a family hostage, at which point Minato could clearly imagine Carrot delivering swift justice to it (1). The Captain cached on his tone of voice.

"Me too, of course. Even Angua has secrets, don't you girl?" the Captain lowered himself a little so that he could pet the wolf while still walking. And he smiled as he talked to the dog, the teen noticed, which was something the Captain rarely did.

"Still, even if they don't want to pry on your past, they are coppers, and being a copper means tugging on every loose end. So if you tell them it's not their business, they will respect it, but you tell them you are from Genua, they will immediately go over all files of Genuan immigrants to double-check it. (2)"

Minato nodded, and added "Sir.", because nodding to the teen was tantamount to speaking.

"But back to what we were saying, where are you staying?"

"...can I commit a minor infraction and sleep in the cell again, sir?"

"No, we stopped doing that when the Coppers noticed it was much cheaper than paying rent." The Captain said so without a hint of sarcasm. "Tell you what, I will talk to the landlady of the place I sleep at. She probably will let you stay for a week before violently demanding some sort of compensation. She also won't ask questions, provided you also don't ask questions about the tenants."

"Are they all watchmen?"

"That is asking a question about the tenants." Carrot scolded. "But no. They're just… unfit for society."

Minato nodded. _He meant freaks_, his inner self chipped in_ we'll fit right in._

Something glowy floated right in front of Minato's eyes, causing him to flinch. Carrot and Angua walked a few steps then looked back at him.

"What is it?"

Minato was staring at a small, glowing butterfly, floating at his eye level, sometimes doing small loops in the air. It seemed… familiar, somehow. Carrot walked up to him, and Angua sniffed his feet, slightly worried.

"Are you feeling alright?"

The butterfly landed on the teen's shoulders, and Minato pointed at it with his other hand.

"Can you see it?"

Carrot and Angua looked at each other.

"Define 'it'."

"Glowing butterfly."

"Then no, we can't." Carrot crossed his arms. "What is it doing?"

"…I'm not crazy." the Captain seemed to be taking this invisible thing in stride, but Minato still felt the need to argue this.

"Yes you are, you are on the Watch."

"It's just sitting on my shoulder." The butterfly then started flying again. His eyes followed it to one side of the street, where it landed on the door of a normal shop, which wasn't wrong or different, that had always been there. And that was not natural, because Minato had never walked this street so he had no way of knowing what shop had always been there, yet he had an overwhelming, powerful feeling inside telling him t-STOP THINKING ABOUT IT.

He turned to Carrot with a blank face.

"Now it flew to that store that wants me to stop asking questions." The teen pointed.

Carrot looked at it, and his copper instincts flared once the store started to argue it was a normal store inside his head. (3)

"Oh, a normal store, is it?" he seemed to take personal offense to that, and Minato understood now what he meant about not lying to a copper, "Come on, they are hiding something."

* * *

1 While still holding his strength to prevent police brutality against the insect, incapacitating it instead of killing.

2 And in Commander Vimes's case, he will triple-check the ink once he finds out your name in it to see if it wasn't a forgery.

3 The thought process of a watchman goes as such; Does this person claims to be normal? If no, then investigate it, if yes, assume it is lying and investigate it. Normal things don't go around being normal, they just go around and the normality is assigned to them

* * *

**A/N**

Just a short update to keep things going.


	13. Chapter 13

Inside the store was a magical place, where the many wonderful and mysterious items on display whirred and spun and glowed, ready to captivate children that had just been introduced to a world of magic and spellcraft.

The watchmen were unimpressed. Carrot walked straight to the counter, pointedly ignoring the mysterious book that promised 'The Adventure of a Lifetime 'that was half-hidden behind a pile of normal books, as well as the pendant glowing enticingly behind a dome that read "The Perfect Gift To Get Her To Forgive"(1). Minato, though unimpressed, was only so because he had run out of impressiveness, the stock of which plummeted rapidly ever since he discovered the Dark Hour back when he was young, but vanished outright since his last year. He still had dangerous curiosity, however, and started to absentmindedly read labels around the store. Angua decided to follow him around, mostly to keep an eye on him in case he accidentally rolled a die on a tabletop game and caused rhinos to spawn. The wolf didn't stop him, though; she knew having a policeman looking around your store thoughtfully while the other one talked to you was the best intimidation tactic on the book.

Reaching the counter, the Captain ringed the bell while absentmindedly swatting a potted plant with teeth which was trying to sniff his arm.

"Ma'am, do you have permission to set up shop here?" he asked to the room in general. Mere seconds later, an old woman with a thick pair of glasses raised from behind the counter, apparently having being crouched there doing heavens know what.

"D'ya want something? We are closed. Come back tomorrow. That will be 14,99 Morpork Dollars, you break you buy." The last bit was added to Minato, who had flinched when eyeing a hand mirror labeled "Truth". Angua was too short to see Minato's reflection was sticking out its tongue at him, while pulling down one eyelid. Nor could she notice the reflection's eyes were bright yellow. The teen quickly moved away, narrowly missing the sight on the mirror that showed a tall, blond woman following his shadow.

Carrot frowned.

"Ma'am, as you should know, the practice of opening an unregistered traveling store has been banned in Ankh-Morpork ever since the Music-With-Rocks-In incident."

"This ain't a music shop." Anymore, at least. She had since then expanded her business to magical memorabilia in general.

"Regardless, ma'am, I will have to ask you to remove your store from the street, as i-"

The world froze in shades of grey to all, except Minato. The teen stopped on his tracks and looked around, taking a battle stance. The Dark Hour? Right in the middle of the day?

I WOULD STOP HIM FROM CLOSING THIS PLACE, IF I WERE YOU

Minato spun, and near Carrot and the saleswoman, there stood a cloaked figure in black, holding a scythe.

HI

The teen nodded in greeting, before simply asking;

"Why?"

IGOR TOLD ME A GREAT DEAL ABOUT YOUR PAST YEAR, AND AMONG OTHER THINGS, THAT YOU WOULD NOT HAVE GOTTEN NEARLY AS FAR AS YOU DID, IF YOU KEPT THE SWORD AND ARMOR FROM THE START OF YOUR JOURNEY.

"…true." as painful as it was to admit it, without the secret police smuggling of surprisingly powerful enchanted swords and armor(2), Minato would have, at the bare minimum, struggled against a good number of shadows.

Death nodded.

THE WATCHMEN WILL UNDOUBTEDLY GIVE YOU SOME STANDARD GEAR,

Minato eyed the still figure of Captain Carrot. His armor was by far the most well-preserved of the Watchmen, being polished, even, but it certainly wasn't state-of-the-art craftsmanship in any regard. A sharp knife or a well-crafted arrow could easily pierce his heart.

BUT IT WILL NOT HOLD AGAINST THE ENEMIES YOU FACE.

"So this store is your doing?"

Death nodded.

IN A SENSE. I DID NOT CREATE IT, AS THE LACK OF SKULLS AND BLACK COULD INDICATE, BUT I HIRED IT. THIS IS A STORE OF STORIES. IT WILL SELL YOU ANYTHING THAT HELPS YOU FORGE YOUR OWN LEGEND. FOR A PRICE.

Minato looked at the frozen shopkeeper.

"Do they realize that if I fail, they die?"

DIDN'T YOUR POLICEMAN FRIEND REALIZE THAT, TOO?

Minato shrugged. He had more than once wondered what was the deal with that guy.

"I have no money."

I UNDERSTAND THAT THIS FACT DID NOT BOTHER YOU LAST TIME.

Minato nodded. He made a small fortune, along with the S.E.E.S. members, looting Tartarus for treasure. If Tartarus was down here somewhere, he should be fine. After he found it, of course, but how hard can you hide a giant glowing tower?

"I'll try to reason with the Captain."

GOOD.

Death seemed uneasy for a moment, before adding;

BY THE WAY, HOW DID YOU FIND THIS PLACE?

Minato blinked, then shrugged.

"Only store in the street that did not want to be looked at."

AND OF COURSE, YOU LOOKED AT IT BECAUSE OF THAT. YOU SEEM TO BE A WATCHMAN AT HEART, ALREADY, IF YOU MANAGED TO STARE AT IT.

"It was doing a pretty poor job."

IT DOES A PRETTY GOOD JOB OF NOT BEING LOOKED AT IF YOU DID NOT KNOW THERE WAS SOMETHING TRYING TO GET YOU NOT TO LOOK AT IT. SOMETHING MUST HAVE AT LEAST MADE YOU GLANCE ITS WAY.

Minato nodded.

"Glowing bug landed on me then flew here."

REALLY?

Death considered this.

WAS IT A BEETLE?

Minato shook his head.

"Butterfly."

Death nodded.

QUAINT.

But if it had been who Death thought it was, it would have been a beetle, and he couldn't remember of any other beings which used bugs as messengers. He'd have to investigate, which was an activity he didn't know where to start. Usually, Death knew the answer before the investigators even arrived.

YOU BETTER GET BACK TO WHERE YOU WERE STANDING, I WILL RELEASE THE HOLD IN TIME

Minato nodded. Angua was a surprisingly smart wolf, so Minato couldn't help but feel she would be able to communicate to Carrot that the new recruit had the habit of teleporting. And the last thing he needed for now was extra attention.

Color returned to the world.

"-t's holding up the traffic." (3)

"Sir."

Carrot turned to face Minato. Angua was also staring the teen with mild surprise. Had the new recruit just _blurred_ a second ago?

"If the problem is the registry of the store, couldn't we register it?"

Carrot did not frown. But he also did not smile.

"Not without the Patrician's permission. There is a reason these kind of shops were banned."

"It is a blemish on the free market it is." The old lady chipped in.

"Regardless, sir," Minato put on his 'mask', knowing Carrot would falter upon seeing, instead of a rather bored new recruit complaining, a new promising guard full of ideals of equality and justice "we should give the storeowner a chance to make up for her mistakes."

"Mistakes? Kid I'll have you know-" Minato broke the mask for a second to glare at her, then put it back up. "Oh, right, mistakes, yes, I had no idea, silly old me."

There was some silence before Carrot sighed.

"…fine." The teen was right; the Captain couldn't just break the ideals of a starting watchman just like that. Not that the ideals would hold long, mind you, Carrot was living proof of that, as were to lesser extent Nobby and Colon. But, above all, Vimes. However, he couldn't rip them off himself, he would let the kid learn it on his own pace, starting with; "But we have to get the Patrician's permission, and we have to call a couple of guards to ensure no illegal sales are made until them."

* * *

Back at the Pseudopolis Yard, Sargeant Colon who had just started to calm down from the shock of earlier that day suddenly felt a wave of dread, which lasted for just a second. (4)

* * *

1 And in very small print 'may or may not switch bodies until forgiveness settles'

2 And spears, and knives, and gloves, and rapiers, and custom humanoid robot parts. Honestly the only thing the Port Island P.D. seemed to lack was standard policeman equipment.

3 Ankh-Morpork Watchmen are found of the 'throw every accusation they can and hope one sticks'

4 Just enough time for Carrot to remember that if he put Colon to guard the store, Corporal Nobbs would follow, and the last thing they needed was Nobby inside a store of magical trinkets designed around poetic justice.


End file.
